QUETTA: A district and sessions judge and a civil judge of Sibi were kidnapped in Jaffarabad district on Sunday, while four senior lawyers of the Balochistan High Court, kidnapped five days earlier, are yet to be traced. Lawyers’ associations have announced a boycott of courts in the province on Monday and threatened to hold protest rallies if the kidnapped judges and lawyers are not recovered.
According to sources, Sibi District and Sessions Judge Jan Mohammad Gohar Yasinzai and Civil Judge Mohammad Ali Kakar were going to Usta Mohammad in a private car to attend a wedding.
They stopped over in Dera Allahyar for some time and left for Usta Mohammad but did not reach there.
Official sources said the judges, who were accompanied by a guard, had been kidnapped from somewhere between Dera Allahyar and Hafizabad area of Usta Mohammad tehsil. Their car has been found in an area in Nasirabad district. “A massive search has been launched for the judges and their guard,” Jaffarabad Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Ayub Jaffar told Dawn.
The four lawyers kidnapped earlier were Advocate Saleem Akhtar, convener of the Balochistan MQM, Syed Tahir Ali, Agha Zahir Shah and Munir Ahmed Mirwani.
No-one has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.
Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani has ordered law-enforcement personnel to take immediate steps to recover the judges and submit a report within 24 hours.
A handout said the chief minister had ordered that joint teams of Levies, police and other law-enforcement agencies should be set up for the purpose.
He said more checkpoints should be set up on the National Highway.
Meanwhile, Balochistan Bar Association chief Baz Mohammad Kakar and Balochistan High Court Bar Association president Hadi Shakeel Ahmed said lawyers would protest across the province against the kidnappings. They said the government had failed to protect people and no-one, not even the governor, chief minister, inspector general of police, judges and lawyers was safe.
“Some forces have allowed terrorist forces to kidnap people,” they alleged, adding that kidnapping for ransom had become the order of the day. “Abduction of judges and lawyers is an attack on the judiciary” which was the only ray of hope in the country, they said.
The lawyers’ leaders said that by abandoning the people the government was forcing them to take up arms to protect themselves.
