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Lawyers and police fight pitched battles
 Hundreds of lawyers were repeated pushed back as they surged ahead time and again on Saturday noon by a heavy contingent of police that had besieged the Karachi Bar AssociationÂ’s premises, anticipating trouble after a protest call.KBA members attended an emergency general body meeting at 11:00 a.m. after which they came out to stage a protest on main M.A. Jinnah road where the police were waiting to check their movement ahead of time. The groups of lawyers were forced to retreat by batteries of policemen in riot gear. They pushed the lawyers back into the alley in front of the KBA office. This led to some stone pelting from the lawyersÂ’ side as the police responded with baton charge. Four lawyers, including Salahuddin Gandapur of the Sindh Bar Council, were arrested and shifted to an undisclosed location. Meanwhile, the police also arrested and bundled away 11 workers of NGOs and civil society who had gathered in front of the provincial Election Commission, Sindh. Later, District and Sessions Judge South on a complaint by Javed Burki, counsel for Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, ordered judicial magistrate Ashique Ali Ghauri to conduct raids to recover the detained. The police also attempted to arrest a number of KBA office bearers including its honorary secretary, but failed. The entire legal fraternity has supported a boycott of court proceedings on Monday also.
Posted by: Fred 2007-09-30 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=200660 |