QUETTA, May 30: The Balochistan Bar Council has given a call for boycotting court proceedings on Thursday in protest against registration of what it calls false cases against lawyers, arrests of political workers, raids on houses of opponents of the government and the military operation in the province.

Speaking at a press conference at the press club here on Tuesday, BPC vice-chairman Ali Ahmad Kurd said the bar council would take part in the movement against President Gen Pervez Musharraf.

He said lawyers would hold demonstrations in Quetta and other district headquarters of the province on June 1 to condemn government’s “anti-people” actions in the province.

Mr Kurd held intelligence agencies responsible for “extra-constitutional arrests” of hundreds of political workers and urged the judiciary to take suo motu notice of the unlawful detentions to protect fundamental rights of people.

He alleged that police had nominated advocate Amanullah Kanrani in false cases. Mr Kanrani was being punished because he was a spokesman for the Jamhoori Watan Party had exposed excesses of the government, he added.

He asserted that Balochistan was a peaceful province but unwise policies of the government had led to violence in the province. Political issues could not be settled through use of force, he maintained.

Mr Kurd said growing lawlessness in the province had created a sense of insecurity among people, adding that abduction of children, car lifting at gunpoint and robbery incidents had become a routine due to apathy of police.

He demanded to disband a sub-jail of the Anti-Terrorist Force because it had no legality and ATF officials had kept 33 prisoners in six small cells which even did have lighting facility.