ATC acquits all suspects in Sahiwal encounter case – Pakistan

A special anti-terrorism court in Lahore acquitted all suspects on Thursday in the case of the Sahiwal meeting giving them the benefit of the doubt.

The court announced the verdict after the lawyers of the suspects completed an interrogation of the testimony of government witnesses.

Judge ATC-I Arshad Hussain Bhutta heard the case.

During the hearings of the case, the court had registered statements of 49 witnesses, including close relatives of a Zeeshan victim and another Mohammad Khalil victim. During the process, all the suspects appeared in court.

The wounded witnesses [children of Khalil who were accompanying the victim when he was targeted] He had not identified the suspects nor were they identified during the photogrammetric tests. The court added that the official who had handed the weapons to the suspects said that all weapons and bullets had been returned.

In January, Mohammad Khalil, his wife and three children were traveling in a car, with their neighbor Zeeshan behind the wheel, when the staff of the Department of Fight against Terrorism (CTD) stopped the vehicle and opened fire on passengers who suspected that They were terrorists. . Khalil's two sons, Umair and Muneeba, had survived the attack.

The suspects said they had information that Zeeshan had ties to a terrorist team. They also claimed that all the victims were killed in a "meeting" that turned out to be false after the two younger children told the public about the incident.

Initially, the trial took place in Sahiwal, however, the Lahore High Court on June 17 transferred the proceedings to Lahore allowing a request submitted by the family of the victims. The petitioners said they had problems while attending the trials in Sahiwal. They also cited security reasons and asked the court to change the trial process from Sahiwal to Lahore.