By DPA
Islamabad : Pakistan riot police lobbed teargas canisters Monday to disperse hundreds of protesters attempting to march to the home of the country’s detained former chief justice.
Lawyers and civil society activists were among the estimated 250 people who attempted to breach police barricades in Islamabad’s federal government district to reach the home of former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
Riot police scattered the crowd by firing multiple canisters of teargas. The protesters had gathered near Chaudhry’s residence following unconfirmed media reports that he would be released from house arrest.
Chaudhry and several other judges were sacked and jailed after an embattled President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency on November 3, 2007 to prevent the Supreme Court from overturning his controversial re-election the previous month.