Gunmen kill Pakistani anti-terrorism court judge and family

No one claimed responsibility for the shooting, which also seriously injured two of Judge Aftab Ahmed Afridi’s bodyguards.

Gunmen killed an anti-terrorism court judge and his family on Sunday as they travelled from the Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan to the capital Islamabad, police official Shoaib Khan said.

Critics say Pakistan’s sweeping anti-terrorism laws have also been used to silence critics of the country’s powerful military. (AFP file photo)

No one claimed responsibility for the shooting, which also seriously injured two of Judge Aftab Ahmed Afridi’s bodyguards.

Pakistan’s anti-terrorism courts were established to hear cases ranging from terrorist financing to the prosecution of perpetrators of insurgent attacks. Critics say Pakistan’s sweeping anti-terrorism laws have also been used to silence critics of the country’s powerful military.

Afridi, his wife and two children — including a two-year old son — were killed in the attack, Khan said.

Afridi had been assigned to the anti-terrorism courts in Swat two months earlier. Swat was once a Taliban controlled area and is where education activist Malala Yousafzai was shot by the Taliban for advocating for girls' education.

Pakistan's military drove the Taliban from the area in 2009.