PESHAWAR, March 19: As lawyers on Tuesday began a three-day mourning against the bombing of Judicial Complex in the provincial capital, Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan said he had himself been supervising the investigation to trace the real culprits and would take action against police if they were found guilty of dereliction of duty.

Lawyers stayed away from courts and therefore, no court work could be performed.

Officials in different courts changed the dates of the hearing into cases fixed there.

Hearing into around 300 missing person cases couldn’t take place due to the boycott of lawyers. The court fixed to April 24 the hearing into these cases fixed before a bench comprising Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan and Justice Irshad Qaiser. The chief justice visited Judicial Complex and saw the courtroom targeted by a suicide bomber.

District and sessions judge Shehbar Khan apprised him of the damage and other related issues.

The chief justice said some elements had been trying to create hurdles in the way of holding transparent elections through such like attacks, but the judiciary would not allow such tactics.

Talking to reporters, Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan said this was an attack on the entire judiciary and it was now his resolve that the masterminds of the attack should be traced and for the same reason he had also been supervising the investigation process.

He said they would meet all the challenges in way of fair and transparent elections and all conspiracies in this regard would be foiled.

Addressing a delegation of lawyers, the chief justice said efforts would be made to improve the security arrangements in courts so as to ensure safety of lawyers, judges and litigant public.

He assured the delegation that if lapse on part of any police official was proved, action would be taken against them.

The delegation comprised Peshawar District Bar Association (PDBA) President Maulana Shamsul Haq, General Secretary Qazi Ashfaq, Vice President Ashfaq Daudzai, former secretary general of Peshawar High Court Bar Association (PHCBA) Ameenur Rehman and others.

The chief justice said Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry had also sent a message expressing solidarity with lawyers, litigants and judges.

He added that following terrorist attack, he had issued directives to police high-ups to beef up security at all judicial complexes in the province.

Earlier, a joint general body meeting of PHCBA and PDBA announced to observe three-day mourning starting from Tuesday, saying lawyers would also not appear before any court.

PHCBA President Abdul Lateef Afridi said the attack was aimed at scaring the judiciary so that it should not interfere in certain issues.

He announced a compensation of Rs100,000 for the deceased, Abdul Majeed, who was a lawyer’s clerk, who was killed in the Monday’s attack.

Mr Afridi announced Rs150,000 for the treatment of the injured lawyers.

He added that the Monday’s attack was a security lapse and a question arose how attackers had entered such a well-guarded security zone.

Other speakers said security of Judicial Complex should be handed over to security forces or private security agencies as police often showed dereliction of duty.