DAWN TO DUSK NEWS: court

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 <span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Mayhem in the capital: Gun-and-suicide attack kills 11 at district courts</span></b></span><img alt="" height="469" src="http://i1.tribune.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/678653-IslamabadsessioncourtattackINP-1393883296-763-640x480.jpg" style="opacity: 1;" width="625" /><br />
<span style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></b></span><img alt="" height="469" src="http://i1.tribune.com.pk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/678653-image-1393881247-751-640x480.JPG" style="opacity: 1;" width="625" /><br />

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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">ISLAMABAD:  </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">A regular Monday morning at the Islamabad district courts turned
into a scene of death and destruction when two suicide bombers and their armed
accomplices attacked the compound, killing 11 people, including an additional
sessions judge, and injuring over two dozen others.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">By noon, the labyrinthine and congested compound of the district
courts in Sector F-8 echoed with a silence that only death can master.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Police put the number of attackers at three to four. They entered
the district courts through an entrance in the back. Later in the day, it
transpired that the attackers belonged to a little-known militant group called
Ahrarul Hind.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">“We claim responsibility for the attack,” a purported spokesman for
the group told The Express Tribune by phone from somewhere in Afghanistan.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The spokesman, who said he was speaking on behalf of the group’s
leader Umer Mansoor, opposed the ongoing peace dialogue. “We do not favour the
ceasefire and peace talks as it is un-Islamic,” he added. “Our main demand is
implementation of Sharia [law] and it has not been mentioned in the talks.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The court compound, a poorly guarded area with defunct body
scanners and over 20 side street entrances, had around 50 policemen on security
duty at the time of the attack, according to police officials.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">None could effectively neutralise the attackers, who the police
said were in their mid-20s, wore short beards and khaki shalwar kameez.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">“Three gunmen opened fire as soon as they entered the area,”
Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Eyewitnesses, most of whom put the number of attackers between four
and seven, said they started firing near the courts of civil judges Naveed Khan
and Azhar Nadeem, who also sustained injuries.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">“The firing lasted for around 15 minutes,” SSP Operations Muhammad
Rizwan told The Express Tribune. During this time, eyewitnesses said the gunmen
‘roamed freely’ through the narrow streets lined with lawyers’ chambers, firing
at will.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Lawyers said the death toll could have been higher if a hand
grenade hurled by one of the attackers into the Waqar Gillani hall, a
cafeteria-like area where lawyers huddle in the morning, had actually exploded.
Some eyewitnesses said the attackers were only targeting government servants
and lawyers and told other civilians to leave the premises. There was also
speculation about the kind of cases that a judge killed in the attack was
hearing or had heard in the past to fix the motive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">But police said it was ‘definitely a terrorist attack’ and an
initial investigation report submitted to the interior ministry by security
agencies stated “the attackers had no specific target”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Medics said 29 people were injured in the attack – three of them
critically.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The dead included people who were in court for hearings, a police
constable, lawyers and Additional Sessions Judge Rafaqat Awan.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Awan was hunted down in a chamber inside his court by one of the
gunmen, according to Muhammad Banaras, a Munshi at the district courts. “The
gunman shot straight at the judge,” he said.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Awan was known for rejecting a petition by the Shuhada Foundation
seeking registration of FIR against former military ruler Pervez Musharraf for
the 2007 Lal Masjid operation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The attackers used hand grenades, automatic rifles and suicide
vests during the attack, Rizwan said. IGP Sikandar Hayat confirmed that two
suicide bombers blew themselves up at separate locations inside the compound.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The worst hit was Block number 3, where the attacker who had shot
Awan exploded after being hit in a fire exchange with an Anti-Terrorist Squad
officer. The block included Awan’s court and the courts of two additional
sessions judges Muhammd Adnan and Sikandar Khan, who escaped in time before the
blast.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Their courtrooms, however, were destroyed in the blast.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Shattered white-tinted glass littered the floor of the alley in
front of the courts. Inside the rooms, furniture and file cabinets were smashed
violently against each other. Throughout the compound, there were bullet holes
staring back from windows and blood stains and tiny bits of flesh strewn on the
streets.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The second bomber blew himself up a few blocks to the south of
Awan’s court, causing a crater. Police found the head and legs of one of the
bombers. Intelligence sources claimed one gunman, wearing a red sweater,
escaped.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Police were conducting search operations in the twin cities to find
him but no arrests were made till the filing of this report. The capital was
put on high security alert and security was beefed in the city’s sensitive Red
Zone.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Monday’s suicide blasts were the first in Islamabad since the 2011
suicide attack outside a private bank. A suicide bomber tried to blow himself
up at a mosque in Bara Kahu in August 2013 but his vest malfunctioned and he
was killed by a security guard. </span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #00b0f0; font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Posted By:: Muhammad Usman </span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Sources: express tribune</span></div>
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Mayhem in the capital: Gun-and-suicide attack kills 11 at district courts

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Mayhem in the capital: Gun-and-suicide attack kills 11 at district courts

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