Lawyers in KP boycott courts today

Attack on judges

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council has announced province-wide strike against suicide attack on judicial officers of subordinate courts in Peshawar in which a driver was killed and four judges including three women were injured.

“The KP Bar Council has unanimously decided to observe a strike across the province as a mark of protest against the terrorist attack,” KP Bar Council Vice-Chairman Muhammad Sareer Khan told The News after a meeting that made the decision about the protest.

Condemning the suicide attack, the lawyers’ body asked the government to ensure protection and foolproof security to judicial officers and lawyers. KP Bar Council Executive Committee Chairman Syed Zahid Jamal Bacha said that there was no proper security for judicial officers and that was why the vehicle was attacked.

He said the joint general body meeting of KP Bar Council, Peshawar High Court Bar Association (PHCBA) and Peshawar Bar Association would be held today to protest the terrorist attack and devise a strategy for the security of the judges and lawyers.

PHCBA President Muzammil Khan and General Secretary Yousaf Ali condemned the attack on the judges. They announced to support the KP Bar Council decision’s to boycott courts. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa judiciary came under attack in the past. On March 17, 2013 terrorists attacked the Judicial Complex in Peshawar in which four people were killed and 29 others injured.

A suicide bomber first had lobbed a hand-grenade into the court room of Additional Sessions and District Judge Kulsoom Azam before blowing himself up.The woman judge was injured in the attack. The second bomber was shot dead by security forces and his suicide jacket was defused by the officials from the bomb disposal squad.

On September 2, 2016, at least 14 people were killed and 52 injured in a suicide attack at the district courts in Mardan. Six lawyers and two policemen were among the dead.