Pakistan’s Top Court Orders CCTVs Installations After Islamabad Attack

Islamabad, March 5, IRNA – Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered installations of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras in all courts in capital Islamabad a day after a group of suicide bombers attacked a local court, killing 11 people. A judge and five lawyers were among the dead in the brazen terror attack on the Islamabad’ s court and lawyers. The Supreme Court directed to install CCTV cameras within forty eight hours in Islamabad and the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi. The three-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Tasadduq Hussain Jilani also ordered action against police officers who failed to quickly respond to the terror and also arrived late at the site. A less known militant group “Ahrar-ul-Hind” has claimed responsibility. The interior secretary, Shahid Khan, submitted a detailed report on Islamabad district court attack, which says sixty-six police personnel are deployed for the security of district courts, although there were 47 at the time of the attack. He said that the cameras and three security scanner gates at the district courts had been broken for some time. The apex court also instructed the Islamabad Police Chief Sikandar Hayat to submit a report about the security detail on March 10 and their response to the attack. The chief Justice, too, has asked the lawyers’ leaders to share with the court eyewitness accounts of the deadly attack, which has raised questions about the security system in the capital city. He also questioned as to why none of the attackers was injured if police officers had weapons and responded to the attack. Responding to this, the interior secretary said that two police men did fire at the attackers but the terrorists blew themselves up. The Apex Court has meanwhile ordered the authorities to identify the policemen who failed to respond to the gun and suicide bomb attack./end