LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Thursday indicted 116 suspects, including top police officials, in the 2014 Model Town killings case.
The development comes after Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar took notice of the delay in justice to the families of the victims last week.
The accused, including Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Rana Abdul Jabbar and Superintendent of Police Umer Riaz,have been charge sheeted by the court.
Around 14 people were killed and 85 others injured during a clash between police and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers in 2014 in Model Town over the removal of barriers placed around the Minhaj-ul-Quran Secretariat.
PAT and Minhaj-ul-Quran had filed a private complaint in the court seeking a trial of the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif, federal ministers Saad Rafique, Khawaja Asif and others, accusing them of ‘murdering’ innocent party workers.
However, the anti-terrorism court had partially accepted the plea, as well as, excluding the premier, chief minister, provincial law minister Rana Sanaullah and eight MNAs from the trial.
The court had taken up the case against officials of the police and civil administration.
PAT had staged many protests for justice and later a judicial commission was also formed to probe into the incident. The report of the commission was not made public by the government for three years until the orders of the Lahore High Court (LHC) in 2017.
On June 17, 2014, police moved to remove the barriers placed on roads leading to Minhaj-ul-Quran institutions and residence of Dr Qadri in Lahore’s Model Town.
PAT chief had announced to lead a long march against the alleged corrupt government on June 23, 2014.
GO TO HELL
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