The acting Chief Justice of Sindh provincial High Court, Justice Maqbool Baqar, was attacked and seriously injured this morning in a bomb blast by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The convoy of the senior judge was passing through a crowded market place in Karachi, the capital of Sindh province. Nine persons were killed and fifteen were seriously injured in the blast. The deceased include seven policemen, one paramilitary ranger and Baqar’s driver.
Justice Baqar was later shifted to a private hospital to undergo surgery and, according doctors there, the High Court judge is in a stable condition.
A spokesperson for the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the attack on the senior judge and said that the judge was writing “anti-Taliban and anti-mujahedeen decisions,” adding that the judiciary would continue to be targeted for its “anti-Islamic and anti-judicious decisions.”
SHC judge Baqar has a reputation for honesty, and he has served as a judge in special anti-terrorism courts set up in the country to pass down quick punishments to convicted terrorists. He was continuously receiving threats from the Taliban and sectarian organizations but the authorities always ignored the threats to his life.
In response to the attack, lawyers throughout the country boycotted court proceedings and held protest meetings, urging the government at all tiers to provide proper security to judges. They declared that this attack had been made possible by the sheer negligence of security agencies (which are far more involved in politics and matters in the neighboring countries) towards their responsibility to protect citizens. The lawyers stated that militant groups were created by the intelligence agencies and blamed those agencies for not stopping the bomb blasts, leaving citizens at the mercy of the terrorist groups.
After today’s attack on the judge’s life, the Chief Minister of Sindh province has announced that he would be provided with a ‘Bullet Proof’ car. Before the incident, when lawyers and judges were asking for full security in view of the death threats to judges of the high courts, the government did not act. It seems that the government can only act after many deaths and is only now looking to provide security to the judges.
The security lapse relating to this senior judge is the main reason why the attack on him and the killing of so many persons could take place. The Sindh government is responsible for the security lapse because it was and remains very well known that in Karachi, the largest city in the country, there have been many suicide bombings, blasts, explosions and target killings. The judge himself, as well as the courts, had also informed the government about the threats to judges but the government failed to deal with the problem adequately.
It is the death of society when judges are attacked by militant organizations, because it means that a minority group in the name of Islam will dictate society on its terms and justice will be provided on the whims of the militants.
The Asian Human Rights Commission strongly condemns the bomb attack on this senior judge of the Sindh High Court. The attack injured him seriously and killed nine persons, including persons from law enforcement agencies. AHRC urges the government to provide proper security to the judges and to conduct an inquiry into this security lapse. There is a strong need to overhaul the working of the security agencies, particularly the intelligence agencies, which earn a big chunk of the budget in the name of the security of Pakistan.
