ISLAMABAD: Former President Pervez Musharraf could be the next target of the militants who killed additional sessions judge Rafaqat Awan in an attack on district courts in Islamabad on Monday morning, intelligence sources said.
Earlier in the day, two unidentified assailants stormed courts in F-8 area of Islamabad while firing and hurling hand grenades. Later, the attackers blew them up. As a result, at least 11 persons including additional session judge Rafaqat Awan were killed and more than 20 others injured.
The additional sessions judge Rafaqat Awan once refused to register a first information report (FIR) against Musharraf following the Lal Masjid operation.
Haroon Rasheed, the son of the deceased Lal Masjid cleric Abdul Rasheed Ghazi, filed an appeal before the additional sessions judge Rafaqat Awan on April 23 last year, asking him to register an FIR against Musharraf. However, Judge Rafaqat Awan rejected the appeal and described that as an attempt to gain cheap popularity.
The Lal Masjid operation was launched in 2007 on the order of then president and army Chief Pervez Musharraf. The operation ended in a bloody eight-day siege killing at least 58 Pakistani troops and seminary students.
Musharraf is already facing a trial in Islamabad’s additional sessions court on charges of killing cleric Abdul Rasheed Ghazi during the Lal Masjid operation.
