Rawalpindi - A 65 year old man was gunned down in the premises of the district courts, informed sources on Saturday.

The deceased was identified as Tanvir, a resident of Basali, they said.  A murder case has been registered against the killers with Police Station (PS) Civil Line.

According to sources, Tanvir was going to appear before a court of law for hearing of case of illegal weapon possession when the two assailants opened indiscriminate firing on him near a mosque situated in old building of district courts at Jhelum Road. After committing the crime, the killers managed to escape despite presence of heavy security of Rawalpindi police, they said.

Rescue 1122 shifted the dead body of the man to District Headquarters (DHQ) Hospital for autopsy. A heavy contingent of police rushed to the crime scene and collected the evidences besides recording statements of eyewitnesses.

An eyewitness told The Nation that the man died on the spot, he said. He said the police guards deputed at the location with weapons in their hands could do nothing as the killers fled without any hindrance.

The firing incident in the district courts swelled a wave of panic among the lawyers, judges and litigants as everybody was running here and to save their lives.

It is for the second time in recent months that armed assailants managed to sneak into security of district courts as earlier two people were gunned down during a court hearing in the premises of Judicial Complex.

Later on, Pervaiz, the brother of deceased, recorded his statement before police that Tanvir was involved in a murder that took place in limits of PS Rawat but the court had acquitted him. He suspected that the applicants of the murder case are involved in killing of his brother. Police have registered a case against the killers and begun investigation.

SHO PS Civil Line Zaheer Uddin Babar was not available for his comments.

On the other hand, lawyers expressed their deep concerns over the poor security arrangements made by police and demanded Chief Justice of Pakistan and Lahore High Court Chief Justice to take action against bosses of Rawalpindi police.

City Police Officer (CPO) Abbas Ahsan, while talking to The Nation, said the murder took place outside the Katcheri. He said police have registered a case but no one has been arrested yet.