ISLAMABAD: The joint investigation team (JIT) probing the alleged police encounter in Sahiwal which killed four people, including an innocent couple and their teenage daughter, was submitted to Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday.
On Saturday, three members of a family were killed during a shootout between the Counter-Terrorism Department and suspected terrorists near Sahiwal.
Khalil, a grocer in Kot Lakhpat, Lahore, his wife Nabeela, their 13-year-old daughter, and their neighbour, Zeeshan, were on their way to a wedding in Burewala when they were killed in firing on their car near the toll plaza on GT Road in the Qadirabad area.
The counter-terrorism officials claimed that the operation was conducted to capture an “Islamic State (IS) commander” on a tip-off by an intelligence agency. The Punjab government insisted that CTD personnel had carried out the “Sahiwal operation on the basis of solid evidence and a Da’esh [Islamic State] terrorist Zeeshan was killed resultantly”.
However, eyewitnesses present near the crime scene claimed otherwise and said that neither did the people in the car use any firearm nor were any explosives recovered from their vehicle.
An earlier update of the report which was presented to Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Sardar Usman Buzdar on January 22 had deduced that CTD officials had negligent in their actions while admitting that there was no connection between the slain family and terrorist elements.
