MUZAFFARABAD, Oct 20: Judicial officers, lawyers and their staff in the quake-hit AJK capital are performing their duties under dangerous conditions, thanks to the cracked and cramped bungalow, housing the district courts, with smelly and dusty surroundings.

Some 28 people, including a female judge, were killed and scores injured when buildings of the district courts in the main old city collapsed within moments of the Oct 8, 2005, quake. As survivors erected tents on the court premises, the subordinate judiciary and lawyers resumed their functions on Oct 17, firstly on the site of flattened old civil secretariat and then in a bungalow in the city’s posh Upper Chattar locality.

However, in early February, the courts were shifted to the present location — a two-storey bungalow located close to a drain that carries water and sewage to the nearby River Neelum.