The Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) has demanded to form a new Joint Investigation Team (JIT) consisting of ISI and MI officials to probe the Model Town incident.
While responding to a letter written by the Punjab inspector general of police, asking the PAT leadership and officer-bearer to appear before the JIT to record their statements, the PAT has questioned that how could they appear before the very police officials who had falsely implicated their workers soon after the Model Town incident instead of taking action against them or those who had prodded them to open fire on the civilians.
The PAT said that the Lahore police not only falsely implicated the PAT workers and its leaders in the incident but also furnished a concocted charge-sheet in the anti-terrorism court, which was tantamount to their character assassination.
The PAT raised the question that why the government was hesitating to form a new JIT comprising ISI and MI officials or even making the previous JIT report on the massacre public.
The PAT also said that the main nominated suspect of the incident, Inspector Ishtiaq, had been posted at a police station in Lahore in violation of the IGP orders and had the current JIT been impartial, it must have taken cognisance of the issue.
The PAT also claimed that the police officials, who had opened fire on its workers, had orders from higher authorities, as, according to it, one of the police officials was shouting that the firing orders have been issued by the prime minister, the chief minister and Rana Sannaullah and no one should hesitate.
The PAT said that the government had already accepted its culpability by not making the earlier JIT report public, which, according to it, has squarely pointed finger at the provincial government.