Sahiwal killings case: Indictment of accused delayed till today

LAHORE: The indictment of the accused in Sahiwal police encounter case was delayed for another day, as the judge concerned of the Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) was on leave on Monday. It’s for the fourth time that the accused were not indicted due to different legal reasons. The duty judge adjourned the hearing for Tuesday (today). Previously, the counsel for the accused Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) officials had filed an application before the court seeking removal of Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) from the FIR. The lawyers for both parties would argue on the matter on Tuesday. As per Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), it is mandatory for the court to decide matter of 7 ATA before the indictment of the accused. As per incident details, four people including three members of a family were killed in police encounter in Sahiwal on January 19. The premier had taken notice of the incident and had directed the authorities concerned to take action. Later on, the CTD officials involved in the incident were arrested and a joint investigation team (JIT) was constituted to probe the incident. The JIT, in its report, held the CTD officials responsible for murder of three members of the family. However, JIT report declared Zeeshan, the fourth person killed in the firing, a terrorism suspect.