The Lahore High Court has directed the Inspector General of Police to ensure protection of witnesses of lynching incident of a Christian couple in Kot Radha Kishan.

The directive issued by the director general of district judiciary directorate here on Saturday required the government to provide security to the witnesses of the case including Shahbaz Masih and Iqbal Masih. The applicants had approached the high court with a complaint of non-provision of security by the police.

The court expressed dismay over the non-provision of security to the witnesses and ordered the government to ensure foolproof security of the witnesses as per the guidelines set by the Supreme Court.

The trial of the case is pending before an anti-terrorism court of Lahore against dozens of suspects. The court has already convicted several suspects while some of them have been acquitted by the high court. Shahzad Masih and his pregnant wife Shama were bonded labour at a brick-kiln of Yousaf Gujjar.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019