Daily Times

An appeal was moved to the Lahore High Court challenging the verdict of Sahiwal encounter case on Monday wherein six accused involved in killing three innocent members of a family were acquitted due to doubts in prosecution evidence. The Punjab government in its appeal said that the anti-terrorism court ignored many facts and ordered acquittal of the suspects involved in killing Khalil, his wife Nabil and daughter Areeba along in an encounter to kill suspected terrorist Zeeshan.

Additional Prosecutor General Abdul Samad filed the appeal on behalf of Punjab government and submitted that the trial court ignored the video record of the case while the witnesses were not given protected as required under the law. The provincial government also said that the forensic evidences of the case were also not given weight and the trial’s sensitive proceedings were not held in-camera. The witnessed who turned hostile were not taken to task, the appeal said. The accused were nominated in the JIT’s report but the court also ignored them and ordered their acquittal.

Last week, an Anti-Terrorism Court set free all six accused involved in killing three innocent members of a family during an encounter launched to kill a suspected terrorist on GT road Sahiwal. The CTD officials who conducted the operation and killed the innocent family were arrested by the order of Punjab government. The accused who have been set free included Safdar Hussain, Ahsan Khan, Ramzan, Saifullah, Hussain and Nasir Nawaz. The Punjab government prayed the court to set aside the decision of the anti-terrorism court.

The appeal was moved after Prime Minister Imran Khan directed the Punjab government, saying that if the victim family refused to be party even then the state should become the party and move an appeal against the acquittal of the accused persons.

According to the sources, the PM directed to probe the poor investigation of the case and lacunas in the prosecution of the case. The video of Sahiwal encounter went viral on social media which grabbed huge public attention leading the government authorities to take strict action.

Omair, Muniba and Hadia, all three children, who were not hurt by the police during the encounter and were left at a deserted area nearby the main GT road from where a man took them to a filling station. The videos of the killing went viral which prompted the Punjab government to take action. The public at large expressed serious concerns over the police’s act.

The Anti-Terrorism court, during the trial, recorded statements of 49 witnesses including the statement of Ehtisham, the brother of terrorist Zeeshan, and ordered acquittal of all accused by giving them benefit of doubt as the prosecution could not come up with solid evidence against them to prove them guilty. The CTD initially claimed that the operation was carried out on the basis of information regarding the presence of suspected terrorist but the eye witnesses said that the family members were shot dead in cold blood by the CTD personnel and that no weapon was recovered from the vehicle after the alleged shootout.