Sahiwal police killings’ accused likely to be indicted today

LAHORE: Six accused of Sahiwal police encounter in which four people were killed, will be produced before an anti-terrorism court on Thursday (today), ARY News reported.

The accused could be indicted in the case today, as the charges could not be framed against them in previous hearing of the case due to absence of the counsel of the accused.

In the incident four people including three members of the same family were killed in police encounter in Sahiwal on January 19 this year.

The statements of the Counter Terrorism Department officials and the eyewitnesses accounts of the incident were found at variance from each other.

The prime minister took notice of the incident that caused an outcry across the country. The premier directed the Chief Minister of Punjab to initiate a probe and take stern action against the people responsible for the incident.

The policemen involved in the incident were detained on instructions of the prime minister and the Home Department of Punjab constituted a joint investigation team (JIT) to probe the incident.

The JIT in its report held the CTD officials, involved in the encounter, responsible for murder of three members of a family, while the probe team declared Zeeshan, the fourth person killed in the firing, a terrorism suspect.

A postmortem report and a medical report of injured disclosed that all four deceased were fired upon a close range, which burnt their skins. Areeba, 13 year child of the victim family, received six bullets and the doctors found her ribs broken.

Earlier, a Lahore High Court (LHC) two-judge bench turned down a plea to constitute a judicial commission to hold the probe.

The bench, headed by Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan, observed that no law authorised the high court to form a judicial commission.

The court received a sealed report of a judicial inquiry of the incident conducted by a judicial magistrate into Sahiwal killings.

Muhammad Jalil, brother of Khalil who was gunned down along with his wife and a teenage daughter in the Sahiwal incident, had sought constitution of a judicial commission.