Islamabad court attack: Protesting lawyers to march towards D-Chowk
The Islamabad police have arrested 17 lawyers including former district bar president Zafar Khokhar for storming into the chamber of Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Athar Minallah on Monday and vandalising it.
They staged a protest after their chambers at the judicial complex were demolished by the Capital Development Authority. The authority has claimed that these chambers were built on encroached land.
The capital’s bar council will hold a rally till D-Chowk today. On Saturday morning, the protesters started gathering outside the district court in F/8. Lawyers from Rawalpindi will join them as well.
The Islamabad High Court has summoned a report from the city’s district commissioner regarding the arrest of innocent lawyers instead of the ‘real culprits’.
Cases registered against lawyers
On February 9, a case against the lawyers was registered at the Ramna police station by the security in-charge of the capital city.
The FIR included Section 7 [punishment for acts of terrorism] of the Anti-Terrorism Act. It stated that on February 8, the in-charge received a complaint on the wireless device that lawyers from F-8 were marching towards the Islamabad High Court building.
The suspects parked their cars outside the court building and blocked the road. “They then tried to break the court’s doors and forcefully entered inside.”
The lawyers stoned the chamber of the chief justice and abused him while doing that. They also threatened him, the complaint added.
After the case was registered, the police have begun the search operation to arrest the suspects. A press release by the court read that contempt to court case has been registered against them and a request has been sent to the bar council to revoke their licences.
Earlier this month, Justice Minallah while hearing a case against the housing society of PTI’s Aleem Khan had ordered the CDA to demolish the encroachments in the capital.
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