MANSEHRA, March 26: Mujahid Ghulam Mohyuddin, the local amir of outlawed Harkatul Mujahideen, was released on bail on Saturday in a firing case. Civil judge cum judicial magistrate Ms Hajira Rehman ordered his release on his furnishing two sureties in the sum of Rs100000 each. Hundreds of activists of the banned party had surrounded the district courts on Friday in protest against the cancellation of bail before arrest of their leader. On Saturday also, hundreds of Harkat militants, carrying sticks and iron bars, had assembled in the Markazi Jamia Masjid on Abbottabad Road. They had threatened that they would again storm the courts if Ghulam Mohyuddin was not released.

The lawyers’ community and people from all walks of life have expressed concern over the way militants of a banned outfit had pressurized the local administration and the judiciary.

“It is the easiest way to hire a few dozen club-wielding criminals to pressurise the courts rather than engage a counsel to secure bail in criminal cases.

We should better wind up and join some other profession,” said one lawyer while talking to this correspondent in the district courts.

“If the officers of judiciary and administration are made target of their abusive language, what a common man could expect from them,” wondered another.