The Sahiwal circle

The government response to the killing of four people, including a woman and a teenage girl, in Sahiwal by the Counter Terrorism Department indicates that it is less interested in getting to the truth of the matter and punishing those involved than in presenting different stories to the public in the hope that one might be believed. A government that was committed to justice would not reject the formation of a judicial commission, as Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar did on Thursday. It certainly would not callously describe the killings as “collateral damage” – the euphemism used by Punjab Law Minister Raja Basharat to justify the killing of innocent people. Punjab’s Additional Chief Secretary Fazeel Asghar perhaps took the cake when he implied that a child who had just lost his father, mother and sister was lying when he said that his father had even offered the CTD officials money in order to spare their lives. The impression this creates is that the government will do anything – including maligning children – rather than admit wrongdoing. The working of the JIT lends credence to this view. So far, only two witnesses have come forward to give statements. The family and lawyers of the victims claim that they are being pressurised by the CTD, which could explain why no one is ready to come forward.

A mind-boggling number of contradictory stories have been put forward to justify what was done in Sahiwal. Originally, CTD officials told the media that they had killed four suspects in a mission to rescue children from kidnappers. Once that explanation proved untenable, the story was quickly switched to one where those killed were members of Daesh. That too has proven difficult to sustain, especially after a video recorded by the son of one of those killed explaining what happened went viral on social media. Witnesses who spoke to news channels said the CTD officials went up to the car and shot those inside dead at point-blank range. To explain this, the government has offered up two more different stories. One is that the occupants of the car shot first and the second is that the CTD officials thought they were wearing suicide vests.

The only question now is why anyone should believe a single word that is said about the Sahiwal incident when till now nothing offered by way of explanation has been proven to be true. How then can the same government be trusted to investigate itself? The primary duty of the state is to ensure the safety and security of the life of citizens. In this case, there was a complete failure to do so. The fact that three small children were left as orphans due to what seems to be extrajudicial murder should be a reality that haunts us all. So should the fact that it is possible for four citizens to be shot dead in broad daylight and for the government to then defend this action as being 100 percent justified. Clearly, there is something amiss in a society where this can happen. Justice needs to be done for those who were killed extra-judicially and that can only come through an independent investigation.