Islamabad: Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Amjad Javed Saleemi on Tuesday was summoned by the Lahore High Court while taking up a petition demanding an impartial inquiry into the Sahiwal killings through a judicial commission.
The elite Punjab police had in a fake encounter on Saturday killed four people, including parents Khalil and Nabeela, their teenage daughter, and neighbour Zeeshan, sending shock waves across the country as one of the couple’s three surviving children who were witness to the episode denied the official version in a video that went viral on social media, the Dawn reported.
The Punjab government maintained that Zeeshan had links to Daesh and was “working with terrorists”, and that the slain family members were all “collateral damage”. Following the incident, a joint investigation team (JIT) was formed to probe the matter, and a first information report was registered against the CTD officials involved in the operation, who were taken into custody on the chief minister’s orders.
Lawyer Mian Asif Mahmood had on Monday petitioned the LHC arguing that the JIT formed by the provincial government would not be able to find out the truth and hold the responsible police personnel accountable for their crime. The petitioner contended that the incident was “a matter of people’s lives and the high court holds the authority to investigate”.
It argued that the government should have created a commission to inquire into the counter, rather “it formed a JIT and did away with its responsibility”. He pointed out that the statistics of Punjab police revealed that it conducted 247 encounters in 2017, 91 in 2018 and about seven were reported during the first month of 2019. The petitioner asked the court to direct the prime minister to constitute a judicial commission to hold an impartial inquiry into the incident.
He submitted that the Punjab chief minister should also be directed to furnish a copy of a detailed report regarding the incident and other fake encounters and action taken against the police personnel.
He also sought a direction for the provincial police chief to bar his officials from opening fire on fleeing suspects and not equip them with automatic weapons. The petitioner also pleaded that the provincial government be directed to initiate a compensatory relief package for the victims. (UNI)
