"Lawyers Rally was Real Target"

By Jamaluddin Jamali

LAHORE, Pakistan, 10 January 2008 (The Post) - The legal fraternity on Thursday blamed government agencies [Pakistan Army's Special ServiceGroup (SSG) Commandos, MI, ISI, IB, FIA, Rangers, or InteriorMinistry, etc.] for the deadly [bomb] blast outside the Lahore High Court and said that the real target of the bomber was the lawyers rally.
Hundreds of lawyers were inside the High Court at the time of the blast while others led by the Lahore Bar Association [LBA] were marching towards The Mall.
Lawyers claimed that real target of the blast was their rally, which was heading towards the GPO Chowk, but later the plan was changed and the police contingent was attacked.
The Lahore High Court Bar Association (LHCBA) and the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) condemned the [bomb] attack which killed almost 26 people, most of them policemen [and injured over 80 Pakistanis].
SCBA Vice President Ghulam Nabi Bhatti told The Post that the blast was the handiwork of [Pervez Musharraf's] government agencies which wanted to browbeat the protesting lawyers.
He alleged that [the Musharraf] government agencies conducted the blast to weaken the lawyers' protest movement. It was a "divine delay"in the protest march that saved the lives of hundreds of lawyers and members of civil society groups," Ghulam Nabi said.
Former LHCBA President Ahmed Javaid Jilani told The Post that the [Musharraf] government wanted to defer the general elections by creating a law and order situation in Lahore which was relatively safer than rest of the country.