KARACHI, April 12: The legal proceedings remained suspended on Wednesday due to a complete strike over the killings in the Tuesday bomb blast.

The city court premises wore a deserted look as the lawyers and paralegal staff did not turn up. Most of the judicial magistrates and judges also did not reach their offices at the city courts.

Similarly, neither the court staff nor the stamp vendors reached the court premises. The two hotels on the city court premises also remained shut.

No legal proceedings were held at the anti-terrorism court on the Queen’s Road and accountability court at Clifton. The judges adjourned the hearing of cases to the next dates.

The court police, however, shifted over 276 under trial prisoners to the courts from the Central Prison. But the UTPs were brought back to the jail without any progress in their cases.

Deputy Superintendent of the Central Prison, Amanullah Khan Niazi, told Dawn that seven prisoners’ vans shifted the UTPs to different courts daily. However, he said, the court police sent on Wednesday six vehicles for the shuttling of the UTPs.

He said there was a remarkable decrease in the number of the prisoners’ visitors. “Over 1,000 visitors come to the Central Prison daily during 10am to 5pm. However, only 10 to 15 people visited the jail inmates today and that is too between 10am and 11am,” he added.