News Desk |
Four people, including two women, have been killed on Saturday (today) as counter-terrorism department officials allegedly opened fire at a car on GT road as an operation against terrorists.
According to the Lahore CTD officials, their team during an operation tried to intercept the car near the toll plaza but the people in car retaliated and started firing at the team and in counteract, CTD team fired at the car.
Refraining from commenting on the incident, Punjab Police officials say that it was CTD operation and only they could give the details.
“Three terrorists managed to escape and have been identified as Shahid Jabbar, Abdul Rehman, and their accomplice,” the spokesperson CTD added. “This was part of the operation in Faisalabad that took place on January 16,” the spokesperson further said.
Read more: Encounter Specialist Rao Anwar likely to be released on bail
The other and earlier version of the CTD police story that made the whole incident suspicious was that those were kidnappers taking the children and after the operation, three children were recovered and all four kidnappers including two women were killed.
However, the eyewitnesses claim otherwise; the people in the car did not fire at CTD team and after killing the elders, CTD officials left the kids at the petrol station. The children while talking to the eyewitnesses said that the police had killed “their parents”.
The other and earlier version of the CTD police story that made the whole incident suspicious was that those were kidnappers.
According to the eyewitnesses, CTD officials came back a few minutes later and took the children with them to an undisclosed location. Refraining from commenting on the incident, Punjab Police officials say that it was CTD operation and only they could give the details.
Read more: Fake encounter by arm of the law: Rao Anwar released on…
According to Initial information, Fayyaz-ul-Hasan Chohan provincial minister for information has said that the people who got killed belonged to the banned terrorist organization. “The Chief Minister of Punjab, Usman Buzdar has talked to the police chief and ordered the inquiry into the incident,” added Mr. Chohan.
Umair Khalil, son of the killed man identified as Khalil, said that the family was going to Burewala to attend a wedding when CTD personnel intercepted them and killed his father, mother, sister, and a friend of his father.
Jalil, the brother of deceased has rejected the CTD’s claim that his brother was a terrorist and said the family– in three cars– was going to Burewala.
Relatives of Khalil have taken to the streets in Lahore and have asked PM Khan to take notice of the incident.
Spokesperson of Punjab Police Nabeela Ghazanfar said that a Joint Investigation Team has been formed to probe into the matter. The team is headed by DIG Zulfiqar Hameed and has officials from Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Military Intelligence (MI), and Intelligence Bureau (IB).