In an unusual development, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday told the National Assembly that the Additional Sessions Judge Rafakat Awan who was killed in Monday’s terror attack on the district court here was accidentally shot by his own guard.
Speaking after a discussion on the National Internal Security Policy, Chaudhry Nisar expressed displeasure at the unconfirmed reports in the media about suicide attack. He dismissed reports that the terrorists had kicked open the door of Mr. Awan’s chamber and shot him. What happened in reality was different, the Minister said, and he had waited till Thursday so that the investigation reports were in.
When news of the firing spread on Monday morning, Mr. Awan and his guard who was armed with a pistol and three others, went into his retiring chamber and the guard had even tapped the door. When the suicide bomber detonated his bomb close to Mr. Awan’s chamber, the explosion took the guard by surprise.
He had his finger on the trigger of the pistol and pressed it by accident, firing three bullets at the judge. Mr. Chaudhry Nisar said the judge was not killed by an AK 47 of the terrorists but by his guard who had a 9 mm pistol.
He said the guard had also confessed to what had happened.
He also refuted reports that the terror attack was targeted at Mr. Awan because he had dismissed a petition seeking to file a case against former President General (retd) Pervez Musharraf in the Lal Masjid case.
