July 19, 2007	Thursday	Rajab 03, 1428

LONDON, July 18: The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has condemned Tuesday’s bomb blast at a rally of lawyers in Islamabad, holding the government responsible for the ‘security lapse’.

An HRW press release also warned the government to desist from using the incident as an excuse to prevent peaceful gatherings by lawyers protesting the dismissal of the chief justice or rallies by political parties opposed to General Musharraf’s government.

The press release said: “Human Rights Watch condemns the bomb blast at a rally of lawyers in the Pakistani capital on Tuesday, hours before the suspended chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, was due to address the gathering and calls for a concerted effort by the government to apprehend the perpetrators of the incident and bring them to justice. In light of the prevailing security alert in Pakistan the government’s inability to provide adequate security cover to this peaceful gathering of lawyers is worrying.”