June 21, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 05, 1428

ATTOCK, June 20: Local lawyers have condemned the recent attack on the house of advocate Amir Rana, nephew of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry at Quetta on Sunday.

In a statement here, the district bar association president, Rana Afsar Ali Khan and former member of the Punjab bar council Sheikh Ahsanuddin, said the storming of 15 armed men into Mr Rana’s house was a serious matter.

They said the government would be held responsible if any harm came to any member of the CJP’s family and the entire legal community would stand by him.

They also demanded the immediate arrest of culprits involved in the incident.

They also condemned the earlier firing incident on the residence of the CJP’s counsel, Munir A Malik, in Karachi on May 10, 2007, a petrol bomb attack on the district bar Sahiwal building and trespassing and harassing incident at the house of former president DBA Karachi,

Akhtar Hussian, allegedly by law enforcement agency personnel at Karachi had created a sense of insecurity among lawyers.

They claimed that all these incidents were pre-planned and an attempt to convey a threat to all lawyers for their massive ongoing protests against the government for suspending the chief justice.

POLITICAL ACTIVISTS RELEASED: The 10 detained activists of Opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) were released from the Jhelum District jail on Tuesday evening, it was learnt.

The activists, who have been released are Waheed Murad, Muhammad Ismail of PML-N and Allah Bukhsh, Dr Muhammad Aslam Fahim, Arif,  Haji Muhammad Anwar,

Haji Mujadid Khan, Ejaz Hassan, Amjad  and  Iqbal Khan of JI.

Four PPP activists Qazi Gulzar, Akhtar Butt, Haji Shafqat and Sajjad were released on last Monday from the same jail.

On reaching Attock after their release, they were warmly received by a large number of activists and leaders of the three opposition parties.

The released activists while talking to local newsmen said that arrests and detentions will never restrict them from their on-goings struggle for the restoration of real democracy and independence of judiciary.

The 14 political activists of Attock district were arrested by the police on June 5 to restrict them from joining journalist’s protest against the Pemra Amendment ordinance and shifted to Jhelum jail.