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Gunmen kill high court judge

QUETTA: Masked gunmen killed a high court judge on Friday in the southwestern city of Quetta, police said.

Four masked men firing automatic assault rifles killed Justice Mohammad Nawaz Marri, second senior-most judge of the Balochistan province high court, in central Quetta, the provincial capital, police said.

He was shot on a busy street near the official residence of the provincial governor when he was driving to his court.

Marri was hit by four bullets, one of which pierced his heart, a police official said. His driver and an armed guard travelling in the car were unhurt, while the gunmen escaped.

There was no immediate information about the motive for the shooting.

A provincial minister, Sardar Nisar Ali Hazara, survived a shooting attack on October 4 on his car but his driver was killed.

Marri was due to become the chief justice of the Balochistan High Court after the scheduled elevation of the present chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, to the Supreme Court later this month.

He came from the Marri tribe of Balochistan, where family or tribal feuds are often settled violently.

Police said they could not rule out that the shooting was the result of a tribal feud. -Reuters