The early morning story about Pakistani lawyers beginning a two day march to protest the new government’s foot-dragging on restoring the judges sacked by Musharraf was quickly overtaken. NATO forces are said to have bombed a Pakistan border fort and killed 11 soldiers. Though all the facts aren’t in, and those disputed, national sentiment isn’t waiting for a calm assessment. Fury would characterize it.

The protest will ramp up pressure on Musharraf to step down. He has been isolated since his allies were trounced in a February election and opponents are demanding he quit and face trial.

It is also a challenge to the two-month-old coalition government led by the party of slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and a threat to the coalition’s tenuous unity.

The second biggest party in the coalition, led by another former prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, say Bhutto’s party has been dragging its feet on the restoration of the sacked judges and it is supporting the lawyers’ protest.

Lawyers on the March

Pakistan has condemned a “cowardly and unprovoked” Nato airstrike which killed 11 of its soldiers last night, threatening relations between the West and Islamabad.

The Pakistan army’s paramilitary checkpost at Gora Prai in the Mohmand tribal agency was “destroyed by coalition forces in Afghanistan through aerial attack”, killing 11 troops including an officer, said an unusually harshly worded statement attributed to an army spokesman.

11 Killed