Sahiwal shootout: CTD personnel taken into custody on CM Buzdar’s order
January 19, 2019
LAHORE: The Counter Terrorism Department officials involved in the alleged extrajudicial killing of a family were taken into custody on the orders of Punjab chief minister Usman Buzdar, said a CM House spokesperson on Saturday.
The CTD claimed that four people, including two women, said to be affiliated with Daesh were killed in a shootout near Sahiwal in a cross-fire. However, moments after the alleged encounter the family and eyewitnesses disputed the claim, prompting questions over the incident.
The Punjab chief minister gave the directives for the CTD personnel's arrest hours after Prime Minister Imran Khan took notice of the incident.
The premier in his call with the chief minister ordered an immediate inquiry report and demanded a transparent investigation into the incident.
Meanwhile, a Joint Investigation Team under DIG Zulfiqar Hameed has been formed to investigate the alleged shootout. The JIT would include members from the ISI, MI and IB, and present its report within three days.
Muhammad Umair Khalil, one of the injured children who was in the vehicle at the time of the incident, told media that he was travelling to Burewala for his uncle's wedding with his father (Khaleel), mother (Nabeela), older sister (Areeba), father's friend (Zeeshan) and two younger sisters when the vehicle was stopped.
“When we were stopped my father begged to take the money and forgive us, but they opened fire.”
The child said his father, mother, older sister and father's friend were killed in the firing and kept back in the vehicle. "The police left us [Umair, younger sisters] at a petrol pump and we were later taken to a hospital," he added.
Jaleel, the brother of Khaleel, told reporters the family was travelling for the wedding in a three-car convoy. “1122 informed us that the children were at the Civil Hospital, but they were unaware of where the dead bodies were.”
Eyewitnesses conflicted CTD's statement and said the people in the car did not fire at officials. "There were no weapons found with the bodies," they said.
The eyewitnesses further said that the children while speaking to them at a nearby petrol station claimed that the "police has killed their parents".
"Following the firing incident, the police left the children at the petrol station where they spoke to us," they added.
A few minutes later, however, CTD officials returned and took the children with them to an undisclosed location, the eyewitnesses added.
