KARACHI, March 25: Lawyers of Sindh will join their colleagues across the country in observing Friday as a day of protest against the military action in Wana and Waziristan.

As decided by a conference of lawyers representatives held in Lahore on March 20, the lawyers will wear black armbands, hold meetings and hang banners within the bar premises, Sindh Bar Council members Mustafa Lakhani, M. Yasin Azad, M. Sadiq Hidayatullah and Mohammad Aquil told a press conference on Thursday. SBC vice-chairman Yasin Khan Babar has informed the province's bar associations of the conference decisions, they said.

The SBC members maintained that the action in the tribal areas 'compromised national sovereignty'. It had been launched 'to appease the US administration at the cost of national solidarity'.

They particularly condemned the decision to demolish houses and expressed their concern at 'the mounting' civilian casualties. They recalled that the country had broken up as a consequence of military action in 1970.