ISLAMABAD: Interior Secretary Shahid Khan on Tuesday startled the Supreme Court hearing Monday’s terror attack on the Islamabad district courts on a suo motu that 42 threat alerts and 22 information reports about a possible act of terrorism had been communicated to the local administration, including the Islamabad police, from Jan 1 to date.

“The ministry of interior conveyed 42 threat alerts and 22 information reports to the Chief Commissioner of Islamabad and Inspector General of Police from Jan 1 to date,” said a report submitted by the interior secretary in reply to the suo motu taken by Supreme Court Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani on the Islamabad attack, which left an additional sessions judge and 10 others dead and dozens injured.

“The incident, despite prior terrorism alerts, raises a big question mark on the ability of the local administration as well as police to protect the capital in such eventualities,” a member of the legal fraternity said after attending the court hearing.

On Tuesday, representatives of different organisations of lawyers, including the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC), the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), District Bar Association, Islamabad and Rawalpindi, informed a three-judge Supreme Court bench that 11 bombers had entered the Katchary Complex to bring death and destruction and two of them blew themselves up when cornered, but the rest of them were let go by police.

Islamabad District Bar President Naseer Kiani in his witness account informed the court that the response of the police was very lukewarm and they were reluctant to fire upon terrorists.

On the one hand former president Pervez Musharraf moved around with a large security contingent as if he were another Quaid-i-Azam, but ordinary people were without protection, lamented Advocate Dr Aslam Khaki.

The court directed the president as well as the secretary of the Islamabad district bar to submit their statements as to what they had seen on the fateful day and explain how the police response had been halfhearted and how they had been reluctant to confront the bombers.

The secretary informed the court that all the three walkthrough gates and close circuit television (CCTV) cameras/equipment inside the Court premises had been dysfunctional. On this, the court ordered authorities concerned to make the CCTV cameras/equipment functional within 48 hours. The court also ordered appropriate lighting arrangements in the entire Katchary Court premises, which according to a lawyer, was pitch dark in the night and noone could pass through the area without the help of a torch.

The court also directed the Islamabad administration to ensure that compensation was announced for the victims positively by Tuesday evening. The secretary also assured the court that security would be beefed up at all district courts of Rawalpindi and Islamabad and the high court premises.

Likewise, the Islamabad Inspector General of Police, Sikandar Hayat, will submit a report explaining how many policemen were deployed at the Katchary premises, how many were present and how many fired on the attackers.

In a preliminary report on Tueday, the IG stated that 47 policemen had been on duty on Monday of a total of 66 deputed at the Katchary Court premises.

The District and Sessions Judges of Islamabad, both East and West, will also submit their reports.

Meanwhile, the interior secretary submitted in his report that all the intelligence available with the interior division had been passed on to all provinces and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).

The March 3 incident at the F/8 Katchary is also being reviewed by the government at the highest level and all developments were being monitored, the report said, adding that instructions to all concerned had been issued.

“All agencies of the government are focused on bringing the culprits to justice,” the report said, adding that a survey of the ICT houses had been conducted and the data of 50,000 houses had been digitised with details of owners, tenants as well as household servants residing in 23 sectors.

Khurshid meets lawyers

Leader of the Opposition Khurshid Ahmed Shah visited the office of the PBC to express solidarity with the lawyer community and declared the dreadful Katchary incident an attack on the parliament, explaining that rule of the jungle would prevail without a vibrant and independent judiciary.

Information Minister Pervez Rashid also visited the Supreme Court and deplored that the police were not trained and lacked equipment and tools to confront terrorists.

PBC Vice Chairman Chaudhry Ramzan and SCBA President Kamran Murtaza called for immediate resignation of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar and compensation of Rs10 million to heirs of every deceased and Rs1 million each to the injured.