PESHAWAR/MANSEHRA, Feb 11: As lawyers in the provincial capital on Monday boycotted courts against the killing of their senior colleague, Malik Jarrar, Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Dost Mohammad Khan warned police of strict action if they failed to arrest the killers and check the incidents of targeted sectarian killings within a week.

Peshawar High Court Bar Association held a general body meeting, where a committee of senior lawyers was formed to hold a meeting with the chief justice over the killing.

It also decided to continue with the boycott of courts today (Tuesday).

The lawyers have been on strike since Friday last against the killing of Malik Jarrar, and torturing of their colleague, Furqan, by local police.

While the PHCBA general body meeting was in progress, the chief justice showed up to show solidarity with lawyers over the killing of Malik Jarrar.

The chief justice said during the last couple of weeks, targeting killings and attacks had increased as apart from Malik Jarrar, two doctors and some other people had been killed, while additional district and sessions judge Ihtesham Ali had been attacked and crippled for the rest of his life.

He said it was the constitutional responsibility of the government and law-enforcement agencies to protect life and property of citizens, including lawyers and judges.

He said the superior judiciary would not tolerate any lapse on part of law-enforcement agencies in protecting public life and property.

Justice Dost Mohammad said he was on a visit to Abbottabad when he learned about the killing and immediately asked the high court’s registrar to contact lawyers.

He said targeted killings had been continuing for two months in the provincial capital, police had miserably failed to arrest killers even in a single case.

The PHC CJ said police should either accept its failure or inform the court on whose behest they had not been arresting the culprits. He added that the elements involved in these targeted killings should be dealt with strictly.

Justice Dost Mohammad warned that if within a week the police failed to arrest the killers and stop the bloodshed, the court would be bound to take judicial notice of the matter and in that case, consequences would not be good for the police high-ups.Earlier, PHCBA vice president Babar Khan Yousafzai and secretary general Qazi Jawad Ahsanullah, Peshawar District Bar Association president Maulana Shamsul Haq and general secretary Qazi Ashfaq, Barrister Baachaa, Moazam Butt, Ameenur Rehman and others addressed the meeting.

They asked the chief justice to take suo moto notice of the killing and torturing of lawyers.

They alleged that the Peshawar capital city police chief had tried to influence the doctors at Lady Reading Hospital to fabricate the medical report of injured lawyer Furqan. So far, they added, the police had also not been registering the FIR of the torturing and injuring of the lawyer.

Finally, the meeting constituted a committee including senior lawyers including Babar Yousafzai, Arif Khan, Qazi Jawad, Maulana Shamsul Haq, Noor Alam Khan, and others. The committee will chalk future course of action and would also hold meeting with the chief justice on the matter.

Also in the day, lawyers in upper parts of Hazara division boycotted courts in against target killing of their colleagues in Peshawar and other parts of country.

The lawyers in Mansehra, Balakot, Oghi, Battagram and Kohistan observed strike on the call given by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council against the killing of Malik Jarrar in Peshawar.

District Bar Association, Mansehra president Munir Hussain Lughmani told reporters that the government should restrict the target killing of the lawyers in KP and other parts of country.

He said if the current spate of target killing of their colleagues didn’t end, lawyer would widen the scope of the protest to other parts of the country.