LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the complainant in the Sahiwal incident for changing his statement before the trial court that led to the acquittal of all the suspects (police personnel).

A division bench seized with a Punjab government’s appeal challenging the acquittal of the suspects also issued a notice to then district police officer of Sahiwal, Ali Zia, after a witness, Waseem, claimed that the officer had pressurised him to change his statement.

The complainant, Muhammad Jaleel, was also present in the court.

Justice Chaudhry Abdul Aziz, who headed the bench, observed that the suspects were acquitted after the complainant and the witnesses resiled from their statements and the judiciary was blamed for not dispensing justice in the case.

Visibly annoyed, the judge observed, “First they raised hell and later they refused to identify the suspects.”

Read more: Parents, teenage daughter among 4 killed during CTD 'encounter' in Sahiwal; PM seeks report

The bench issued notices to the complainant and the former DPO for Jan 17.

On Jan 19, 2019, Muhammad Khalil, his wife Nabeela and their four children were travelling in a car with neighbour Zeeshan behind the steering wheel when the personnel of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) intercepted the vehicle and opened fire on the passengers suspecting them terrorists.

Three minor siblings of Khalil namely Umair, Jazba and Muneeba survived the attack with minor injuries.

Yousafwala police had registered the first information report on the complaint of Jalil, brother of deceased Khalil, under sections 302, 324, 337 (F1, F-A1 & F3) and 201 of Pakistan Penal Code and section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.

The suspects namely Safdar Hussain, Ahsan Khan, Muhammad Ramzan, Saifullah, Hasnain Akbar and Nasir Nawaz were indicted by the trial court. However, they were acquitted. Also read: ATC acquits all suspects in Sahiwal encounter case

The prosecution presented 24 private witnesses, however, all of them exonerated the suspects from the charge and majority of them said they knew nothing about the occurrence.

The government filed an appeal against the acquittal of the police personnel.

The appeal said the trial court ignored several facts of the case including video and forensic evidences.

It said the trial court neither provided protection to the eyewitnesses nor took action against them after they resiled from previous statements. The government asked the court to set aside the trial court’s verdict and punish the suspects under the law.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2021