JHANG, July 23: Local district and sessions judge Ikramul Haque Chaudhry has held Jhang police responsible for the security lapse which resulted in the shootout and murder of three people inside courtroom of an additional sessions judge on Monday.

In a letter written to the Jhang DPO, the DSJ had sharply criticized the inefficiency and lack of courage demonstrated by the policemen present inside courtroom at the time of the incident.

The letter further said that as soon as the firing started inside courtroom at 8.11am, he immediately rang up the Rescue 15 and asked them to rush to sessions court, after introducing himself to them. But the rescue 15 commandos did not arrive at the scene till 8.20am despite being based at a distance of only 150 yards from the place of occurrence. Then he rang up the DPO at his residence, but the telephone operator showed his ignorance about the whereabouts of the DPO.

In the meantime, the district judge received the information at 8.25am from his staff that the shootout had abated and three people had been killed while the injured were rushed to hospital. The letter also reminded the DPO of a previous request made by him to the former DPO for setting up a police post on the premises of sessions court to avoid such occurrence in the future.

Concluding the letter, the DSJ urged the DPO to take stern action against the policemen who did not make any attempt to stop armed assailants from entering courtrooms, allowing some of their accomplices to flee from the scene.

DPO Khadim Hussain Bhatti told Dawn that as soon as he heard about the incident on wireless at about 8.15am, he rushed to sessions court. He was already out when the judge rang him up.

The DPO said that he reached the spot within two minutes and personally supervised the shifting of injured to the local DHQ Hospital.

Regarding the conduct of the Rescue 15 personnel, he said that nine minutes were reasonable reaction time even for the fastest fighting force of the world. He said they had to take up their guns, load them and rush to their vehicles before reaching their target.

The DPO said action was sure to be taken against those policemen who were already present in sessions court and did not perform their duty in accordance. He however, praised the efficiency and devotion of SI Riaz Ahmad Bajwa for showing an exemplary courage. He grappled with main assailant Muhammad Nawaz Ramana when he was trying to flee after the shootout. He pulled him down on the floor which resulted in his killing with his own gun shot, he said.

The DPO also assured that a police post would be set up inside sessions court within a couple of days to tighten the security.

Meanwhile, the Jhang district bar gave a three-day boycott call of courts to lodge their protest against the Monday’s incident and the lack of security arrangements.

In an emergency meeting on Tuesday, the district bar passed a resolution, condemning the Jhang police and judiciary for being responsible for the incident.