LAHORE, Jan 10: The lawyers’ plan to make the Thursday protest rally a memorable event against the government was cut short by the suicide hit.

The Lahore Bar Association, along with over a thousand lawyers, had been marching on the Lower Mall when the protesters first heard the rumbling sound of the explosion. As soon as they approached in front of the Town Hall, police officials informed them about the suicide hit in front of the Lahore High Court and stopped them from proceeding further.

The Lahore High Court Bar Association was scheduled to join in the LBA rally, which also included the representatives of the Concerned Citizens of Pakistan. LHCBA president Ahsan Bhoon had been addressing the lawyers when the suicide bomber struck the police contingent deployed to maintain security.

“We were deployed to see nobody broke the law and damaged the public property,” said an injured constable while talking to Dawn at the Services Hospital. The LHC and the Aiwan-i-Adl had become a symbol of protest against the regime of Gen Musharraf (retired), especially after the imposition of emergency on Nov 3.

Even though lawyers were beaten black and blue on Nov 5 for protesting against the emergency rule and removal of judges under the PCO, their protest did not die down. They have been holding protest meetings, regularly taking out rallies on Thursdays and boycotting court proceedings in protest against what they call a blow to the independence of judiciary under the emergency rule.

Through this Thursday’s rally the lawyers had resolved to make their protest more vigorous to dispel the impression that their movement had died down. Recently, some government functionaries said the lawyers’ movement for the restoration of the deposed judges and the independence of judiciary was waning.