Three top officials of the Islamabad police and administration were on Monday suspended under orders from the Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry for supervising brutality against lawyers and journalists on Saturday.

In an unusual move on a public holiday, the CJ on Sunday took suo motu notice of the excessive use of force by the police and security agencies to thwart a protest rally by lawyers on the occasion of scrutiny of nomination papers of President Gen Musharraf. Journalists were also targeted to prevent them from live telecast of the operation against lawyers that involved indiscriminate baton charge, teargas shelling and use of brickbats.

A three-member bench headed by the CJ, examined police and hospital records and watched TV footage of the police action. The court directed secretary interior Kamala Shah to order immediate suspension of Islamabad's police chief Marwat Shah, his deputy Naveed Khan and deputy commissioner Mohammad Ali. Shah later informed the court that he had complied with the orders, but tendered unconditional apology, urging the court pardon the suspended officials. However, the court ruled that the suspension would continue till the completion of inquiry into the incident. About 45 lawyers and 30 journalists were wounded, some seriously, during the police violence. Angry lawyers and newsmen manhandled state minister Tariq Azim while some lawyers roughed up and injured senior MQM leader Farooq Sattar.

The police arrested six lawyers on the charge of attacking Sattar, who was sent to jail in judicial custody. A bail application moved before an anti-terrorist judge was shelved till October 3. But on a petition by lawyers, CJ also ordered that the application be immediately heard.

The judges expressed their outrage at the way lawyers and journalists were beaten. It was further noted that IG Marwat Shah himself beat senior lawyer Ali Kurd. The CJ said there was no justification for the use of violence against peaceful rally and recalled that lawyers had been taking out processions in the past as well without any incident.

Meanwhile, all over the country, lawyers observed Monday as black day in protest against events of Saturday in the capital. They staged peaceful rallies on main city roads and boycotted courts, paralysing judicial proceedings in the country, including Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta . In Lahore, lawyers also carried batons, vowing to retaliate if the police interfered with their protest.