3 lawyers and one journalist injured in police shelling

• FIR lodged against 30 lawyers, including presidential nominee, Gandapur
• Protest against Musharraf’s nomination, not SC decision: Naeem Qureshi
• ‘The only weapons we had were our pens. Come to think of it, they could be lethal,’ lawyers at CHK said

Three lawyers and one journalist were seriously injured Saturday afternoon when policemen in riot gear entered the jurisdiction of the City Court and fired teargas shells at lawyers protesting the nomination of General Pervez Musharraf in the upcoming elections.

“For the past four days, the police had been slowly barricading the area around the City Court,” a lawyer, Sakina, who was suffering from the effects of the teargas an hour and a half after the protesters were attacked by the police. “Today they brought the barricades closer, and started shelling as soon as we stepped out on the road. This was on Raja Riaz Shaheed Road, within the jurisdiction of the City Court.”

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 lawyers’ side as the police responded with baton charge.

Protesters responded to the shelling by pelting stones at the policemen. Three lawyers, Masood Rehman advocate, Khalid Tanoli, and Javed Sheikh, and one journalist, Fareed, a photographer with the Associated Press (AP) were injured by the shelling. They were taken to Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) for treatment.

The Karachi Bar Association (KBA) held a meeting in the morning, and everyone who participated insisted that lawyers should take to the streets to protest the nomination of General Pervez Musharraf in the upcoming elections, lawyers said. The bar association management decided, however, that lawyers will not take to the streets – they would stay within the jurisdiction of the City Court and protest. “We decided to assemble on Raja Riaz Shaheed Road (outside the bar room),” Masood Rehman advocate, one of the lawyers who was injured, said when Daily Times spoke to him at the CHK emergency room. “The moment we got there, however, police vehicles on both sides of the road (the lighthouse, and Tayeb Ali Alvi Road) started firing teargas shells at us.”

The lawyers were unarmed. ‘The only weapons we had were our pens. Come to think of it, they could be lethal,’ lawyers at CHK said.

Karachi Bar ambulances were brought in and those seriously injured were taken to the CHK. The rest who suffered minor after-effects of the teargas were treated within the City Court compound.

‘The police are still standing outside, and we can’t leave, because they might start firing at us again,’ lawyers said. ‘We have therefore gone to the District and Sessions Judge (South), Nisar Shaikh, to ask him to make the policemen move out of here.’

Policemen posted outside the City Court compound an hour after the incident claimed, however, that nothing ‘untoward’ had happened in the area. “No, there was no shelling here. The protesters are up there in the building, talking to the judge,” an officer-in-charge claimed. When asked why they had brought riot police with them when ‘nothing untoward’ had happened, the officer replied, “This is our city, our Karachi. We can go where we please.”

A total of four lawyers were arrested and taken to the City Court Police Station.

The City Court police lodged FIR No. 104/07 (under Sections 147, 148, 149, 353, 504) against at least 30 lawyers, including KBA’s secretary general, on behalf of Sub-Inspector Mohammad Ameen. SHO Zahid Hussain told Daily Times that four lawyers, advocate Salahuddin Gandapur, advocate Abdul Saeed Qureshi, Gul Mohammad and Sohail Baig Noori were taken into the custody and KBA General Sectary Naeem Qureshi, Hanif Kashmiri, Faheem Zia, Saleem Zia, Javaid K. K. and others have yet to be arrested. The SHO said that he and his policemen, ASI Tariq Mehmood, were injured during the riots.

Saturday’s protests were not against the Supreme Court’s September 29 decision, KBA’s Naeem Qureishi said. “Our protest was to challenge the nomination papers filed by General Pervez Musharraf for the upcoming presidential elections. We had called this protest on September 25. Today lawyers all over Pakistan were observing a Black Day.”

Moreover, Qureishi said, the Supreme Court’s decision did not state that President General Pervez Musharraf could contest the upcoming elections in uniform. “The Supreme Court ruling was about the objections filed by various parties and their admissibility in court,” he explained.

Policemen posted outside the city court premises promised to stay at their positions post-Iftar. “We’ve ordered Iftar for everyone here. We plan to stay here for a long while,” the officer-in-charge claimed.

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.

[Reported By Urooj Zia with photo by Athar Hussain via DailyTimes]

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