QUETTA, June 17: Advocate Amir Rana, nephew of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, has alleged that about 15 armed men entered his house in the early hours of Sunday after overpowering the watchman, scaling the boundary wall and breaking the main door.

He said the armed man asked his mother about him and searched different rooms on the ground floor while he was on the first floor.

Mr Rana said he immediately went into a washroom and started firing in the air from the window and the armed men fled in their vehicles.

He said a report of the incident had been lodged with the Bijli police station.

He said a Kalashnikov rifle found outside the house in the morning had been handed over to police.

He said he had been under pressure from an intelligence agency since March 9, when the reference against the chief justice was filed. He said he had been told to convey to the chief justice that his actions were not in the interest of his family. Mr Rana also claimed that a senior official of the intelligence agency who identified himself as Brig Zulfiqar, warned him that the government had been offended by the activities of the chief justice. He said he had remained away from Quetta for 40 days and returned home 15 days ago.

Balochistan High Court Bar Association President Hadi Shakeel Ahmed alleged that intelligence agencies had been harassing relatives of the chief justice to mount pressure on him to bow before government.

He said the lawyers would boycott the proceedings of courts in Balochistan and take out a procession in Quetta on Monday to condemn the unlawful acts of the intelligence personnel who had broken into Mr Rana’s home in violation of the law. He said that if the nephew of chief justice was wanted in any case, he should have been arrested in a legal manner.

He alleged that the intelligence agency personnel had raided the home of nationalist leader Habib Jalib Baloch and harassed members of his family on Friday night. They had also picked up lawyer Agha Hasan on Saturday.

The BHCBA chief said the lawyers who were taking an active part in the movement against the government after the filing of the reference were being harassed and their family members felt insecure because of illegal actions of intelligence agencies. Balochistan Bar Council Vice-Chairman Hashim Khan Kakar, BHCBA General Secretary Qahir Khan, Balochistan Bar Association Vice-President Sabir Jamil and other senior lawyers were present at the press conference.