HYDERABAD, July 18: Lawyers across the province boycotted courts on Wednesday in protest against a suicide attack at the venue for lawyers gathering in Islamabad, which was to be addressed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

They held general body meetings and brought out rallies, expressing their resolve to continue struggle for the reinstatement of chief justice.

In Hyderabad, the Hyderabad District Bar Association (HDBA) held a general body meeting, which offered fateha for the people who were killed in the suicide blast.

They also staged a rally, which started from the civil courts and terminated at the press club. HCBA President Abdul Sattar Kazi, Allah Bachayo Soomro, Fazal Qadir Memon and Noorul Haq Qureshi said that the actual target of the suicide blast was chief justice but luckily he remained unhurt.

Sanghar DBA President Anwar Mehmood Nizamani said that the blast was an attempt to assassinate the chief justice and pave the way for emergency and other extra-constitutional acts.

He claimed that the government was finding it difficult to prove allegations against the chief justice in the Supreme Court therefore it planned to do away with the CJ.

Lawyers in Khairpur, Dadu, Nawabshah, Nirpurkhas, Naushahro Feroze and Tando Mohammad Khan boycotted courts, brought out processions and staged sit-ins against the suicide blast and vowed to continue protest till the independence of judiciary.