At least 22 Pakistani riot policemen and four civilians are reported to havebeen killed and over 65 injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up near theLahore High Court ahead of a planned protest by lawyers on January 10, 2008.
Mr Malik Iqbal, the police chief of Lahore, has been quoted as saying that thebomber was on foot and detonated his explosive device at 11.45 am (local time)near a security barrier set up by the police close to the Lahore High Courtahead of the lawyers' protest march to press for the reinstatement of the judgessacked during the recent Emergency by President Pervez Musharraf for refusing totake a new oath under an executive order issued by him instead of under theConstitution as prescribed.
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Those, who refused to comply, including Chief Justice Iftikhar AhmedChaudhury, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, were sacked by him, and a newset of judges, including a new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, known to beloyal to him were sworn in. The re-instatement of the sacked judges has becomeone of the main issues for the forthcoming general elections on Februarty18,2008.
A bench of the Supreme Court consisting of the pro-Musharraf judges dismissedpetitions challenging the proclamation of the Emergency by Musharraf andvalidated his re-election as the President by the previous National Assemblyelected in 2002. Thereafter, he got himself sworn in for a second term as thePresident, lifted the Emergency and restored the Constitution. All the pro-Musharrafjudges were sworn in under the Constitution.
Before his being sacked, the former Chief Justice Iftikhar Ahmed Chaudhury hadordered the re-opening of the Lal Masjid of Islamabad and the restoration of itsmanagement to the clergy, who were responsible for it before Commandoes of theSpecial Services Group (SSG) had raided it from July 10 to 13,2007. He had alsotaken up for enquiry reports alleging that a large number of tribal girlsstudying in the girls' madrasa attached to the Lal Masjid were killed during thecommando raid. This enquiry was stopped by the new pro-Musharraf judges.
Since then, there had been fears that the jihadis from the tribal belt as wellas the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LEJ), who have carried out a number of suicide attacksagainst the Police, the SSG, the Army, the Air Force and the Inter-ServicesIntelligence (ISI) after the Lal Masjid raid, might start targeting the new judgesof the Supreme Court as well as the provincial High Courts. Musharraf hadordered the tightening of physical security for all the new judges and thebuildings of the Supreme Court and the High Courts.
It would seem that the Lahore High Court and not the policemen were the primarytargets of the suicide bomber. The policemen got killed when the bomber wasstopped at the security barrier. He blew himself up before he was frisked.
This is what happened during two attempted suicide bombings targeting theGeneral Headquarters (GHQ) of the Pakistan Army in Rawalpindi after the LalMasjid raid. The suicide bombers, who were planning to blow themselves upoutside the GHQ, blew themselves up when they were stopped at the securitybarriers. Security personnel posted at the barriers were killed and not Armyoffiers.
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B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. ofIndia, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,Institute For Topical Studies,Chennai.
