July 24, 2003	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 23, 1424

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QUETTA, July 23: Witnesses, including two religious scholars, on Wednesday made their depositions before the tribunals probing the Quetta killings.

Both the religious scholars — Allama Mehdi Najafi and Allama Yaqoob Ali Tawasali — told the tribunal, led by Justice Amanullah Khan Yasinzai of the Balochistan High Court, that there had been no security arrangements outside the imambargah on the days of the occurrence of the terrorist incident, which claimed the lives of over 50 persons.

Allama Najafi, provincial chief of the Islamia Tehrik of Pakistan, was leading the Friday prayer at the time of the attack.

Allama Najafi blamed the provincial government for insufficient security arrangements, saying that as he entered the imambargah.

He told the tribunal about the injured people and also about the attackers’ bid to kill the Ulema.

Expressing his surprise over the death of the terrorist captured by the people in imambargah, Allama Najafi said that the third terrorist had been overpowered, adding that while he bore no mark of injury, he was reported to have died on his way to the hospital.

Many of the injured, he said, had died because there was no immediate assistance available, adding that the people killed in the incident belonged to areas all over the country.

Allama Yaqoob Ali Tawasali, patron of the Imamiya Juma, maintained that he had called for overpowering the terrorists.

Two other eye witnesses, Abbas Ali and Barkat Ali, who had been injured in the terrorist attack on the Police trainees on June 8, recorded their statement before the tribunal, headed by Justice Ahmed Khan Lashari of the Balochistan High Court.