KARACHI, July 5: The Nishtar Park blast inquiry tribunal ordered on Wednesday that the Pakistani Sunni Movement chief who was appearing as a witness before it should continue to be provided police guards.

Shah Sirajul Haq Qadri, the PSM leader and an eye-witness of the April 11 carnage, submitted in an application filed through his counsel, Javaid Ahmed Chhatari, that police guards left him when he came out of the courtroom after recording his statement on Tuesday. When he contacted a deputy inspector-general to find out why the guards have left, he was told that police guards could not be provided to a person who was making unfounded allegations against the force. He said he apprehended threat to his life and could not move about freely without police protection.

Justice Rahmat Hussain Jafferi of the Sindh High Court, who constitutes the tribunal, asked Additional Advocate-General Sarwar Khan to ensure that police guards were restored and adjourned further proceedings to Thursday.

Shah Siraj would continue his testimony on Thursday. Earlier on Tuesday, he informed the tribunal that a sectarian outfit, led by Mufti Munir Shakir of Fata, NWFP, had warned the organizers of the Nishtar Park public meeting of ‘bloodbath’. He also blamed a leader of an Eid-i-Milad rally taken out from Merewhether Tower of causing an ‘unprecedented’ delay in the arrival of main procession at Nishtar Park.