Complainant of Sahiwal case refuses to appear before JIT

LAHORE: A family of Sahiwal incident victims on Wednesday refused to appear before the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) that was scheduled to hold identification parade of suspects as part of its probe into the killing of four people. Citing sources, Geo News reported that JIT members along with local magistrate arrived at the local jail where they waited for Jalil, brother of Khalil , and other witnesses but they didn’t show up. The TV channel reported that Jalil while talking by telephone said “We will not appear before the JIT” Jalil said he had presented his demands and recommendations which also include formation of judicial commission before the Senate’s Standing Committee .He said the committee has also called for setting up a judicial commission.“We will appear once the commission is formed,” he was quoted by the TV channel as saying. On the other hand, the civil judge has fixed Thursday for identification parade of suspects involved in shooting of the four people. The four people were shot dead by personnel of Punjab’s Counter Terrorism Department.

The incident

On January 19, the CTD claimed in a statement that they signalled a Suzuki Alto car and a motorcycle to stop near Sahiwal Toll Plaza on GT Road, but they did not pull over and instead opened fire on the police. The CTD officials retaliated and four people, including two women, were killed by the “firing of their own accomplices” in the ensuing firefight, according to the CTD.