Kasur incident: Wattoo says JIT should be changed

LAHORE: Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo, President PPP Punjab, has urged the government to change the Joint Investigation Team as demanded by the victims’ families of Kasur. He said this in a statement issued on Tuesday adding the trust of the aggrieved parties in the JIT was important to deliver justice in the case like this.
He said the complaints of intimidation and harassment meted out to complainants by the local authorities at the behest of the powerful were both contemptible and condemnable by any measure and the top authorities of the Punjab government should take notice of it immediately.
He pointed out that fair investigation of the case of Hussain Khanwala village was critical to award exemplary punishment to the accused. He recalled that he was deeply saddened after meeting the children and their parents during his recent visit to the village because their children had run away from the village and also stopped attending schools due to unbearable social stigma.
He urged the government to ensure submission of challan of the case at the earliest with irrefutable evidence necessary to bring the criminal to justice. Justice not only be done but be seen to be done because it is pretty important in such a highly publicised case like this, he observed.
He again urged the government to arrange free education of the victims in other city centres and also ensure the employment after the completion of their education so that they could lead their life with honor and dignity. Without this, their total rehabilitation will be a forlorn hope, he commented.
He said the fact that Rawalpindi and Lahore were on the top of the ten most notorious cities in child abuse in the country cast aspersions on the government of Punjab that seemed oblivious of the existence of the despicable problem with dangerous ramifications on the social fabric of the society.