At least four persons - husband, wife, teenage daughter and driver - were killed while their minor son received bullet wounds when the vehicle the family was travelling in was attacked in an alleged encounter by the officials of Punjab Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) near Qadirabad area of Sahiwal district on Saturday.
The alleged encounter which the CTD officials later termed an 'intelligence-based operation' took place on GT Road near Sahiwal. They claimed that the operation was conducted on the basis of information about the presence of suspected terrorists provided by the department and an intelligence agency.
According to an initial inquiry report submitted to the Punjab IGP by Sahiwal RPO, the CTD officials signaled a car and a motorcycle to stop near Sahiwal Toll Plaza at around 2pm. Meanwhile, the alleged terrorists retaliated by firing at the CTD officials following which a shootout ensued. When the firing stopped, four people were found dead as a result of firing, the report claims without disclosing identities of the "suspected militants".
"Today, CTD Sahiwal team tried to stop a car and motorcycle carrying terrorists near Sahiwal Toll Plaza. The terrorists started firing at the CTD officials on which a shootout ensured. When the firing stopped, four persons including two women were found dead with the firing of their accomplices who came on the motorbike," the CTD statement claimed.
The suspected militants who managed to escape on the motorcycle by resorting to firing were identified as Shahid Jabbar, Abdul Rehman, and an unknown person. They were also nominated in Red Book of the Punjab police," the inquiry report further stated, adding that the CTD officials also recovered suicide jackets, hand grenades, rifles, etc from the car.
The CTD officials said the operation was the part of its January 15 crackdown in which two militants associated with the militant Islamic State (Daesh), who were allegedly involved in the kidnapping of former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani's son, were gunned down on last Monday night while their two accomplices Shahid Jabbar and Abdul Rehman had managed to flee the scene. It may be noted that in today's episode, both the "suspected militants" Shahid Jabbar and Abdul Rehman have once again managed to escape.
"This Daesh network is responsible for the killing of three ISI officers in Multan, one police officer in Faisalabad and also kidnapping of the United States citizen Warren Weinstein. This was the most dangerous network of Daesh in Punjab as it had killed dozens of people in blasts and firing," claims the report.
In addition, the details of the incident, as narrated by the eyewitnesses and children accompanying the deceased, are entirely different from what the CTD officials are trying to establish. According to media reports and video clips circulating on social media, eyewitnesses said four persons travelling together in a car - who happened to be family members-were shot dead by police and they had no weapons in their vehicle.
In another video, eyewitnesses and people present at the hospital were seen suggesting that after the incident, the CTD personnel had abandoned the wounded children at the crime scene. The officials, however, after a while came back to the crime scene and shifted the three injured children to a nearby hospital.
After the shootout, relatives of the victims held a protest demonstration in Lahore's Chungi Amar Sidhu locality and shouted slogans against security agencies and police. The protest, which was later joined by the locals of the same area, not only suspended the Metro Bus Service but also blocked Ferozpur Road and other main arteries. The protest was under way till filing of this report.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan contacted Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and sought a report in connection with the incident. The prime minister also directed to hold a transparent and detailed inquiry into the incident.
The CM also ordered the arrest of CTD officials involved in the tragic incident. The Punjab Police Inspector General (IG) also formed a joint investigation team (JIT) headed by DIG Zulfikar Hameed, officials from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Military Intelligence (MI) to probe the incident. The JIT will submit its report within three days.
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