The Supreme Court has sought a report from the Punjab government on January 2019 Sahiwal tragedy – an alleged encounter in which the Punjab Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) killed four people including three members of a family on a highway near Sahiwal city.
A division bench, comprising Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Yahya Afridi, issued this order on Wednesday while hearing the bail plea of Hafiz Mohammad Usman, a police officer accused of shooting a civilian in a separate incident that took place in Lahore on March 13, 2020.
During the hearing, the counsel for Hafiz Mohammad Usman told the court that the Dolphin Police Force in Lahore had received a phone call with regard to alleged illegal activities committed by a Muhammad Hasan Bhatti.
“When the police carried out a raid, Bhatti tried to flee in his car. The police opened fire on him, injuring him fatally. Later, Bhatti died during treatment at a hospital,” he said, adding that Bhatti had a criminal record.
Justice Qazi Faez Isa lamented that police took the life of a person just on the basis of a phone call. He then recalled the Sahiwal tragedy and asked Punjab Additional Prosecutor General Abid Majeed Mirza, who was present in the courtroom, as to what happened in the case.
Mirza told the court that the case is probably pending before the Lahore High Court (LHC).“I don't understand what the Punjab government and police are doing,” Justice Isa said.
“No one is going to ask the killers of innocent civilians. Tell me what the Punjab government did in the Sahiwal tragedy and what action it took against the culprits,” he said, directing the additional prosecutor general to submit a report on the incident.
In October 2019, a special bench of an anti-terrorism court (ATC) acquitted all the six officials of the Punjab CTD who were accused of the brutal murder of four people near Sahiwal.
Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta had given the police officials the benefit of doubt. He had announced the verdict after hearing testimonies of 49 witnesses, including the brother of one of the victims.
The accused - Safdar Hussain, Ahsan Khan, Ramzan, Saifullah, Hasnain and Nasir Nawaz - had shot dead a couple, Khalil and Nabeela, their daughter Areeba, and another man Zeeshan on January 19, 2019.
Bhatti’s case
The counsel for Bhatti’s family contended that the policeman who opened fire on Bhatti, Abdul Razzaq, had a monetary dispute with the victim.
The bench, however, granted bail to the policeman, Hafiz Mohammad Usman, as all the other policemen accused in the case including Abdul Razzaq have already been granted bail.
A special bench of an anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Thursday acquitted six officials of the Punjab Police's Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) who were accused in the brutal murder of four people, including a woman and a minor.
Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta gave the police officials the benefit of doubt. The verdict was delivered after recording statements from 49 witnesses, including the brother of one of the victims.
The accused - namely Safdar Hussain, Ahsan Khan, Ramzan, Saifullah, Hasnain and Nasir Nawaz - had shot dead a couple, Khalil and Nabeela, their daughter Areeba, and another man named Zeeshan on January 19 this year.
Khalil, his wife and their four children were travelling with Zeeshan when the CTD personnel stopped their car near Sahiwal Toll Plaza on GT Road and opened fire, later claiming that they were targeting suspected terrorists.
Khalil and Nabeela's other three minor children - Umair, Muniba and Jaziba - survived the shooting.
CTD officials initially said the four victims were killed by the “firing of their own accomplices”. They said the operation was a follow-up of a previous raid and that they were tracing two wanted terrorists of Da’ish, Shahid Jabbar and Abdur Rehman, who were listed in the 'Red Book'.
While the CTD dubbed it an 'encounter', the victims' family maintained that they were going to attend a wedding. The family's claim proved true as it later transpired that except for Zeeshan, all other occupants of the car were innocent.
A joint investigation team formed to probe into the incident confirmed that the family was innocent and that the CTD officials were responsible for their killing.
Subsequently, the Punjab government removed some top CTD officials and suspended others, while announcing that six CTD officials responsible for the killings would be tried on terrorism and murder charges.
It may be mentioned here that the CTD has repeatedly been accused of pressuring the victims' family to drop the case.
At a press conference, the family’s lawyer Shahbaz Bukhari presented a seven-minute recorded call wherein a CTD official threatened his life.
Due to apprehensions expressed by the victims' family over the JIT, the Lahore High Court ordered a judicial inquiry. The judicial inquiry led by civil judge-cum-judicial magistrate Shakeel Goraya recorded the statements of 49 people including eyewitnesses, CTD suspects amongst others.