Condemning the killing of four people, including a woman and a girl, during Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) operation in Sahiwal, a parliamentary body has recommended constitution of a judicial commission headed by a senior judge of the High Court to probe into the matter.
The Senate Standing Committee on Interior met here with Senator Rehman Malik in the chair on Monday. The committee expressed serious anger over Sahiwal incident and sought inquiry report from the government of Punjab in this regard. Sahiwal incident is very painful and against human rights, Malik said.
The committee directed a thorough probe based on ground realities into the incident from various aspects. The parliamentary body directed the Ministry of Interior to submit a comprehensive report to the committee based on following questions to be answered by inspector general of police (IGP) and home secretary Punjab including: full details and profile of the deceased as well as any past criminal record, if any; first information report (FIR) or anything related to any criminal activity of the deceased or their family; and any animosity within the family or other feud in the area which could have created some issues.
Other questions include what made the police to follow the family travelling in a small car and what concrete evidence was there to consider the deceased as prime terror suspects. The committee said that full following evidence should be placed on record: when the travellers stopped the car on the direction of CTD police then why the police opened firing despite no resistance by the deceased; what the reason was of killing them instantly; and why the attempt was made to kill the children, if it be presumed that it meant was to eliminate the witnesses.
The committee also asked questions about full police version on this incident: at what level such action was ordered; if there was any FIR wherein these deceased were ever summoned or interrogated; if there was any intelligence report against them; if that had been placed on record; and the profile and the service history of all the officials of CTD involved in this incident as well as if any of them belongs to the local area.
Malik said that tragic incident happened on the main highway when the police firing could be seen by the people around and eyewitness were available; hence, their statements are to be made part of record of this case.
The committee directed that a detailed comprehensive report on the incident based on above questions raised by the chairman committee should be submitted to the committee within one week and strict action will be taken against those found guilty.
Senator Muhammad Javed Abbasi said that no law allows police to kill people; therefore, exemplary punishment should be given to those who are responsible for this incident. "We do not accept the joint investigation team (JIT) constituted by the government to probe into the matter and a judicial commission should be set up to investigate the matter," he added.
Senator Kauda Babar said that the brutal incidents like Sahiwal and killing of Naqeebullah Masood in a fake encounter in Karachi will continue unless proper mechanism is developed to deal with such kind of incidents.
Malik said that incidents of human trafficking and smuggling are increasing day-by-day so effective measures should be taken to stop them. He said that the committee should be informed about the exact number of fake overseas promoters against which action has been taken.
He said that the presence of security officials of US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham during his meeting with Prime Minister Imran is very unfortunate. The committee should be informed how the US Senator's guard was allowed to be present in the meeting, he added.
The committee also took up the administrative, financial and legal issues of Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI). The chairman Capital Development Authority (CDA) and mayor Islamabad briefed the committee in this regard.
The meeting was also attended by Senator Haji Momin Khan Afridi, Senator Sardar Muhammad Shafiq Tareen, Secretary Ministry of Interior Dr Aamir Ahmad, Chairman CDA Aamir Ali Ahmed and other senior officials.
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