ISLAMABAD, July 29: Senior lawyer Habib Wahabul Khairi said on Thursday that he had suffered serious injuries in what he called an attempt to kill him. He alleged that he had been attack at the behest of a high judicial functionary.

Wearing a blood-soaked white shirt and with a bandage on his head, the veteran lawyer narrated details of the attack in which four criminals, waiting in a black jeep, intercepted him in the morning when he left the house for the court in his car.

The assailants tried to make him leave his car and when they failed, they thrashed his head with stones. They fled when hearing his screams, some passers by rushed to his help, he claimed.

The lawyer who rose to prominence after the famous March 20, 1996, judges case, said that after receiving first aid, he drove straight to the court to get his cases adjourned and then rushed to the Supreme Court to meet the chief justice of Pakistan in his chambers.

The chief justice, he said, expressed his concern and assured him that he would look into the matter. Mr Khairi said he had been receiving threatening calls for some time and added that he was not afraid of anyone and would continue to perform his professional work without hiring any bodyguard.

After speaking to reporters, Mr Khairi went to the New Town Police Station, Rawalpindi, to lodge an FIR. But, he said, the police station was reluctant to mention the name of the judicial functionary.

However, a primary report about the incident was registered. The vice-president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, who was present at the press conference, condemned the incident.