September 22, 2007	Saturday	Ramazan 09, 1428

PESHAWAR, Sept 21: The Peshawar High Court Bar Association and the District Bar Association of Peshawar decided on Friday to observe a complete strike here on Saturday against the raid on the office of a lawyer and the taking away by force two of his clients allegedly by law-enforcement and intelligence agency personnel on Thursday.

The two associations will hold their general body meetings and stage protest demonstrations.

According to the Peshawar High Court Bar Association (PHCBA) secretary-general Ishtiaq Ibraheem some officials in black uniform, apparently belonging to the Criminal Investigation Department, and plainclothes men of an intelligence agency barged into his office, held staff members at gunpoint and took away clients Dalil and Agha Gul, both Afghans.

A kidnapping case had been registered against the two clients on December 27, 2006 at the Mathra police station on a complaint of Aslam Khan.

The accused were granted bail by a judicial magistrate but that decision was challenged in the anti-terrorism court.

The ATC presided over by Shahjee Rehman Khan heard arguments on Thursday and reserved its order for September 29.

The lawyers expressed concern over growing incidents of violence against their colleagues and accused the intelligence agencies of intimidating them.

A week ago, an intelligence agency allegedly took away high court advocate Ghulam Nabi and released him after an overnight thrashing. The lawyers observed strike against that incident on September 14.