LHC orders judicial inquiry into Sahiwal incident
LHC CJ threatened to serve contempt of court notice to JIT head.
LAHORE (Dunya News) – Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday has ordered a judicial inquiry into the alleged encounter in Sahiwal and also directed session judge to complete the investigation in one month.
Hearing the petition of victim Khalil’s brother Jalil, Chief Justice of LHC Sardar Shamim expressed resentment over Joint Investigation Team (JIT) head for not recording statement of a single eye witness.
He also threatened to serve contempt of court notice to him.
Sahiwal tragedy
On January 19, CTD officials had killed four people, including a couple and their teenage daughter in an alleged “encounter” in Sahiwal, triggering a national outcry that prompted the government to take the security officials into custody and order an investigation into the incident.
The officials claimed that the ‘terrorists’ were killed in an intelligence based operation (IBO). Three other terrorists including Shahid Jabar and Abdul Rahman managed to flee during the chase near the toll plaza of Sahiwal.
They also claimed of confiscating explosives and weapons from the car adding that officers were investigating into the matter as part of the operation in Faisalabad on January 16.
Contrarily, an eye witness has told the media that the deceased were neither equipped with any weapon nor resisted officers whereas three children were also present in the car.
The eyewitnesses further said that the children while speaking to them at a nearby petrol station claimed that the “police have killed their parents”.
“Following the firing incident, the police left the children at the petrol station where they spoke to us. A few minutes later, however, CTD officials returned and took the children with them to an undisclosed location,” the eyewitnesses added.
