KARACHI, Feb 25: Police and intelligence agencies took over control of the Sindh High Court premises and prevented journalists and mediamen, local and foreign, first from entering the court building and then the court-room of Justice Shabbir Ahmed, who is the administrative judge for the anti-terrorism courts in the city.

When the journalists protested, they were abused and hackled and even subjected to punches by the security men.

When an official of the Sindh High Court, Shaukat Memon, tried to intervene and questioned as to why they had prevented the mediamen, even he was not spared of the abuses hurled by the security men, some of them not in uniform.

When a television reporter asked the advocate-general to comment on the treatment meted out to the journalists, he smiled and walked away.