CJP Khosa Demanded To Take Suo Motu On Sahiwal Incident

The CJP is being demanded to award strict punishments to the responsible after conducting an unbiased investigation.

Lahore (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News – 20th January, 2018) People are demanding newly appointed Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Asif Saeed Khosa to take a suo motu notice on the Sahiwal incident.

The CJP is being demanded to award strict punishments to the responsible after conducting an unbiased investigation.

The government officials and opposition members have strongly condemned the incident.

With the alleged shady encounter on a highway in Sahiwal district on Saturday noon resulting into killing of four persons, including two women, a big question mark was posed on the functioning of Punjab Police.

The victims were first declared as kidnappers and then as terrorists from a proscribed group by the police force, which raised eyebrows on the alleged shootout, followed by contradictory witnesses' narratives.

As the incident drew wide ire and condemnation, demands were also made for a thorough probe.

Prime Minister Imran Khan himself contacted Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar and sought a report over the alleged encounter. He directed for a comprehensive and transparent investigation into the incident, so that facts could be ascertained.

Separately, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain, in a video message, said if the version of Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) about the incident was not correct, then the personnel involved in it would be brought to book and face exemplary punishment.

The Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD), in a statement, said its personnel signaled a car and a motorcycle to stop near toll plaza on GT Road, but the occupants opened fire on them and in the ensuing shootout, four persons, including two women, were killed by the firing of their own accomplices.

The victims were identified as Muhammad Khalil, his wife Nabeela, 13-year-old daughter Areeba and a neighbour.

Three children were also recovered from the car, who, later, clearly contradicted the CTD version and said the police fired upon their parents, elder sister and the car driver when they were travelling from Lahore to Burewala.

The surviving boy Umair, who received a gunshot wound in his leg, later identified the deceased as his parents, teenage sister and his father's friend.

The media narrated accounts of the children in which they maintained that their parents were killed in a cold blood by the police.

On the other hand , after the shooting incident, residents of Ismail Nagar in Lahore, neighbours and people of the area blocked Ferozpur Road demanding speedy action against the relevant police personnel.

They rejected the police statement, saying they had been familiar with the family for the last many years.

Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab Amjad Javed Salimi has formed a four-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT), headed by DIG Zulfiqar Hameed, to investigate the alleged encounter and present its report within three days.

According to eyewitnesses, the CTD officials opened fire on the car without hurling a warning and refuted the claims about recovery of weapons or explosives from the car.

The incident once again exposed the fragility of Punjab police force's modus operandi, especially those personnel deployed on check points as in the past, several incidents of firing had resulted in causalities.