Sahiwal encounter: Punjab govt challenges acquittal of suspects in LHC

LAHORE: The Punjab government has filed an appeal in the Lahore High Court (LHC), challenging the acquittal of suspects in the Sahiwal encounter case, in which four people were allegedly gunned down by Punjab Police’s Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) earlier this year.

The appeal was filed by Punjab Additional Prosecutor Abdul Samad Khan in the LHC, raising objections over the release of suspected killers. The provincial government contended that either the investigation of the case went in the wrong direction or the witnesses resiled from their statements.

In the appeal, the government said that the trial court overlooked video recording and failed to provide protection to star witnesses of the case. The trial court should have held in-camera proceedings of highly sensitive case, and it ignored the forensic evidence as well as the report of Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which held the accused responsible for the murder of four people, the Punjab government said in the appeal.

The provincial government requested the court to reverse the special court decision and take action against those responsible for the flawed investigation in the case and those who changed their statements.

On Oct 24, an anti-terrorism court acquitted all six personnel of the CTD who were accused of killing four people, including a woman and a minor, in Sahiwal. Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta gave the accused personnel the benefit of the doubt.

Following the directive of Prime Minister Imran Khan, the Punjab government on Friday announced filing of an appeal against the ATC verdict.

In January, Mohammad Khalil, his wife and their three children were travelling in a car, with their neighbour Zeeshan behind the steering wheel, when the CTD personnel stopped the vehicle and opened fire on the passengers suspecting them to be terrorists. Khalil’s two children Umair and Muneeba had survived the attack.

The suspects said they had information that Zeeshan had links with a terrorist outfit. They also claimed that all the victims were killed in an ‘encounter’ which turned out to be false after the two minor children narrated facts of the incident to the public.