A Karachi court on Saturday ordered the police to arrest the owner of two pet dogs who attacked a lawyer five days ago.
The Additional District and Sessions Judge South issued the directives after rejecting the appeal for pre-arrest bail of the owner, Humayun Khan, whose two dogs had attacked veteran lawyer Mirza Ali Akhtar on Monday, leaving him severely injured.
The court said that “it was due to the negligence of the owner that the dogs attacked the lawyer, whose life is now in danger”.
Earlier court proceedings
In court proceedings a day earlier, a large number of lawyers of the Karachi Bar Association were present in court as a gesture of solidarity for the injured lawyer.
The court asked the police whether the dogs were taken into custody, to which the police replied in the affirmative.
Humayun Khan, the owner, appeared in court in a wheelchair.
“Does he have a license to keep the dogs?” the court asked his counsel.
The owner’s counsel argued before the court that the lawyer got up on his own and left the site of the incident unaided, as can be seen in the video.
He further said that the owner, instead of attempting to escape the law, has been cooperative throughout.
“It is not a crime to own dogs. There are two caretakers who look after them,” the lawyer said.
According to the police report, it was the owners’ son Daniyal who had been present with the dogs and later left with them.
He has also been nominated by police in the case.
The incident
CCTV footage of the incident showed that Advocate Mirza Ali Akhtar was walking in the Phase 6, Defence Housing Authority neighbourhood, when two dogs darted towards him and tackled him to the ground.
Another man, who appeared to be a caretaker of the dogs, tried hard to separate the animals from Ali but to no avail.
The caretaker ran off to find another man and they both then rescued the lawyer from the dogs.
The footage showed the two caretakers left the lawyer injured on the road and took the dogs away.
Police registered a case against the dogs’ owner, Humayun Khan, and nominated the two caretakers in the case as well.