ISLAMABAD: Within hours of the ceasefire announced by the federal government, the capital city faced the onslaught of what appears to be a terrorist attack.

The early morning gun and bomb attack on the district courts in the heart of Islamabad left 11 people, including a district and sessions judge, dead and 29 injured.

This is the first time a judge has been killed in a terrorist rampage inside a courtroom.

The district courts in Islamabad themselves have been attacked in 2007 during a lawyers’ rally that was organised for the restoration of the then deposed chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

However, Monday’s attack, which came six months after the last terrorist attack in Islamabad, was particularly bloody and indiscriminate as the gunmen went on a rampage, shooting at whatever and whomever in their range.

The district courts in Islamabad are located in the commercial area of Sector F-8, which is an upmarket area of the capital, home to a number of embassies, diplomats and politicians.

The courts and lawyers offices are located in a maze of narrow lanes inside the sector’s main commercial sector where many of the courts and offices have flimsy doors, makeshift walls and glass fronts as they were converted from structures constructed to function as shops.

The cardboard and glass doors provided no protection on Monday morning as the gunmen shot around randomly.

Police claimed that they recovered hundreds of bullet shells.

They came from two sides

From the accounts of law-enforcement personnel and eyewitnesses, the attackers entered the area from two different locations at around nine in the morning.

One team (of reportedly two men) entered the premises through a restaurant near the court of civil judge, Sohaib Bilal Ranjha, where they shot dead a young woman lawyer, Fizza Malik, who was in her early 20s, as well as two others. Another young woman lawyer, who was making her first appearance in the courts, was injured.

They also shot and injured Civil Judge Azhar Nadeem.

Initial investigations of the police lead them to assess that this team was simply supposed to fire indiscriminately and create chaos, which would then allow the other team of attackers to make straight for the district and sessions judges where their target was Judge Rafaqat Ahmed Khan Awan.

This second team entered from the south side.

Awan, the police are assuming, was the target of the attack.

As the attackers were making their way to the district and sessions courts, they randomly shot at people and offices before they arrived at Awan’s courtroom.

Targeting Awan

While other judges managed to escape, one of the attackers threw a grenade into Awan’s courtroom.

Awan ran into his chambers behind the courtroom, which were connected to the court by a door that opened near the judge’s chair.

Kicking that door down, the attackers entered his chambers and shot him.

The judge was then carried out by his staff through the backdoor to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Awan’s security guards told investigators that they fired at the attackers but were not sure if they injured anyone.

A lawyer, Wasif Abbas Awan, told Dawn that three men “held the court hostage for 45 minutes”.

The floor of his chambers was still stained with his blood in the afternoon.

One of the cornered attackers after the judge was killed blew himself up near the courtroom of ADSJ Mohammad Sikander, right next to Awan’s.

Sikander and another judge had escaped just moments earlier.

Another suicide attacker blew himself up a couple of lanes away.

Around 40 minutes after the attackers entered, they left in a black SUV. An eyewitness claimed that they were not stopped by the police.

In the wake of the violence

By late afternoon, the courts and chambers were deserted. Except for a few lawyers and journalists and dozens of policemen, no-one was around.

The body parts had been removed and the police claimed that the partial face of a bomber, which had been recovered, had been sent for reconstruction.

But even the continuous rain had not managed to wash away the blood stains that were everywhere — inside offices and courtrooms; outside in the narrow lanes; where the young lawyer had been shot; where a senior advocate took a random bullet while in his office; and where a judge was hounded and brutally killed.

Shattered glass and splinters from doors were also not in short supply.

The policemen were everywhere, standing or lounging in chairs, smoking a cigarette to ward off the cold, biting wind and the icy cold rain. They watched the journalists and the curious passersby who had wandered in but did not stop anyone.

Even the yellow crime scene tape did not deter the visitors.