LAHORE: The Punjab police said Monday that the Joint Investigation Team on Sahiwal operation can’t give definite time period to conclude its findings as a lot of work is yet to be done in this respect.

“Nothing is conclusive yet because of some pending work and the same has been conveyed by the JIT to all the relevant forums, including the Lahore High Court,” said Punjab Operations DIG Jawad Dogar in a hurriedly-called press conference at the Central Police Office.

Flanked by DIG Legal Abdul Rab, he said that the main purpose of convening press conference was to dispel speculations on the JIT investigation on the Sahiwal incident in which four persons including three members of a family were allegedly killed during operation of the Counter Terrorism Department, Punjab.

Quoting the JIT investigation so far, he said, it had not given its findings. “It is yet to conclude whether Zeshan, who was driving the car, was a terrorist or not.”

He added that the JIT had apprised the Lahore High Court about the progress of the investigation.

According to the three-page report submitted to the LHC, he said, the official weapons used by the CTD personnel in the operation were yet to be presented to the Punjab Forensic Science Agency for analysis.

He further said the JIT was trying to get custody of the DVRs installed at the Sahiwal office of the CTD in order to examine the record of the officials and other people who visited there in the wake of the Sahiwal incident.

The wireless device and the logbook would also help trace the communication of the CTD officers/officials in connection with the Sahiwal operation, he said.

To a question, the DIG Operations said that the JIT was also yet to confirm that the Khalil family was going to attend a marriage function in Burewala.

He said the CTD had been conducting operations in Punjab on the basis of the credible intelligence information.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2019