Sahiwal victims’ family won’t bury deceased until justice is served

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LAHORE: A First Information Report (FIR) was registered on Sunday against 16 Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) officials involved in the killing of four people in an alleged encounter. Moreover, a case has been registered under articles of murder and terrorism.

Following this, Sahiwal’s victims’ family announced that the bodies of the deceased family members will not be buried until justice is served.

“Instead of registering our FIR, police have registered an FIR against the victims,” Jalil, brother of Mohammad Khalil said.

The victims’ family members along with other protesters placed the bodies on GT Road and staged a sit-in against the CTD personnel.

Not only that, people across the city staged a protest over the Sahiwal incident and have blocked the Ferozpur Road, Chungi Amar Sadhu from both sides for traffic.

 

INITIAL POST-MORTEM REPORT RELEASED: 

An initial post-mortem report regarding the death of four people in an alleged “encounter” on GT Road near Sahiwal on Saturday has been released which stated that driver Zeeshan sustained 10 bullets, 13-year-old Areeba received six bullets while her mother Nabeela Bibi got four bullets and the father Mohammad Khalil sustained 13 bullets as a result of firing carried out by the CTD personnel.

It was further reported that one of the children, identified as Umair received a bullet in his right leg, while Muneeba injured her hand after the glass was shattered.

Following this, a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) has also been formed by the provincial government to probe into the incident.

In an earlier statement issued after the ‘encounter’, the CTD claimed that the raid was carried out on the information of a “sensitive organisation”– though it did not specify the particular agency.

“The [alleged] terrorists retaliated by firing at the CTD officials following which a shootout ensued. Once the firing stopped, four people were found dead, reportedly as a result of firing by their own accomplices, while three terrorists had fled the scene,” the CTD said in a statement.

As per the CTD statement, suspects identified as Shahid Jabbar and Abdul Rehman were travelling towards Sahiwal and were reportedly in possession of arms and explosives.

“They used to travel with families to avoid police checking. Today, they were warned to surrender but they resorted to firing,” read the statement, adding that Shahid Jabbar, Abdul Rehman and another unidentified suspect fled from the scene on a motorcycle.

“Recoveries include suicide jackets, hand grenades, rifles, etc,” it claimed.

According to a new video that has emerged, police officers can be seen surrounding the vehicle and pointing their weapons while the police mobile vehicle is stopped at some distance.

The video details children being taken out of the vehicle to the police mobile van. The police then open fire at the vehicle that caused four people to die in the incident.