Lahore High Court offers judicial inquiry into Sahiwal incident

LAHORE (92 News) – The Lahore High Court, while hearing the pleas for forming a judicial commission, offered to hold a judicial inquiry into the killing of four people by CTD officials in Sahiwal last month. A two-member bench headed by Lahore High Court Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Shamim Khan and including Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan heard the petitions. The court ordered the federal government to inform the court about the formation of the judicial commission to probe into the matter. The court also ordered the JIT to summon the eyewitnesses and record their statements. However, eyewitnesses disputed the claim and said the people in the car did not fire at officials, nor were any explosives recovered from the vehicle. The petitioner requested that the LHC judges form a judicial commission in accordance with the Punjab Tribunals of Inquiry Ordinance, 1969, and that the joint investigation team be stopped from continuing its probe and labelled illegal. The hearing was then adjourned till February 14. On January 19, four people were killed in an alleged shootout in Sahiwal, with the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) personnel claiming they had killed a local commander of militant organisation Daesh and three others in the operation.