⁍ The United States urged Pakistan on Thursday to take action over the killing of an American national in a crowded courtroom.
⁍ Tahir Ahmed Naseem was shot multiple times at close range as he appeared in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Wednesday.
⁍ As Naseem’s arraignment began before the judge, a young man in the room pulled out a handgun and shot him in the head.
– An American man facing the death penalty in Pakistan for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad was gunned down in a Peshawar courtroom Wednesday as other prisoners looked on. Police and witnesses say a young man in the courtroom pulled out a handgun and shotTahir Ahmed Naseem multiple times as he appeared before a judge on charges of blasphemy, the AP reports. The man was arrested. “The young man who shot him had no remorse, and said he saw the Prophet Muhammad in a dream the night before,’ Latif Afridi, who heads the Peshawar High Court Bar Association, tells Reuters. “It is likely someone who can go without being checked, perhaps a police officer or a lawyer, handed the shooter the gun after he entered.” Supporters of a hardline Islamist group held a protest rally in Peshawar calling for the release of the suspected shooter, saying he had defended his religion.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-court-blasphemy/us-urges-pakistan-to-act-after-american-charged-with-blasphemy-shot-in-court-idUSKCN24V2RW