FAKE ENCOUNTER IN PAK: 5 COPS TO BE CHARGED WITH MURDER

ISLAMABAD: The Lahore high court has ordered the removal of the commander of the counter-terrorism police in Punjab province and will charge five policemen with murder over a shooting last week outside Sahiwal in which members of an innocent family were killed.

In a fake encounter on Saturday, the elite Punjab police had killed four people, including the couple Khalil and Nabeela, their teenaged daughter, and neighbour Zeeshan Javed.

The incident sent shock waves across the country. One of the couple’s three surviving children, who were witness to the shootout, denied the official version in a video that went viral on social media.

Counter-terrorism police had identified Zeeshan as an Islamic State (IS) leader in the province.

The court on Tuesday summoned Punjab inspector general of police Amjad Javed Saleemi while taking up a petition demanding an impartial inquiry into the Sahiwal killings through a judicial commission.

The Punjab administration maintained that Zeeshan had links to IS and was “working with terrorists”, and that the slain family members were all “collateral damage”.

Following the incident, a joint investigation team (JIT) was formed to probe the matter, and a first information report was registered against the CTD officials involved in the operation, who were taken into custody on the chief minister’s orders.

Punjab law minister Raja Basharat confirmed that the five officers who shot at the car will be charged with murder.