Mumbai terror attack lawyer shot dead

MUMBAI, India – The lawyer for one of the suspects in the 2008 Mumbai terror attack was shot dead Thursday, police and a colleague said.

Shahid Azmi was representing Fahim Ansari, an Indian national accused of helping facilitate the attack on India's financial capital in November 2008.

A lawyer colleague of Azmi, Rashid Mirza, said unidentified men opened fire on Azmi near his home in suburban Mumbai.

Azmi, who was not given police protection by the court, was rushed to a nearby hospital but declared dead on arrival, said a family member, who was too distraught to give his name.

Three attackers on two motorcycles fired at Azmi, and he sustained four bullet wounds, said a senior police inspector who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The attackers fled, and police are hunting for them, the inspector said.

Ansari is on trial with Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving Pakistani gunman in the Mumbai terror attack, and Ahmed Sabauddin, another Indian accused of providing maps that helped the attackers.

The three-day siege of India's financial capital left 166 dead.