A day after three members of a family were killed during a shootout between the Counter-Terrorism Department and suspected terrorists near Sahiwal, Prime Minister Imran Khan promised that "swift action" would be taken against those found responsible for wrongdoing.
In what law enforcers described as an encounter with terrorists, the elite Punjab police on Saturday killed four people, including parents and their teenage daughter, sending shock waves across the country as one of the three surviving children who were witness to the episode denied the official version in a video that went viral on social media.
Prime Minister Khan took to Twitter on Sunday to recognise the CTD's "great job in [the] fight against terrorism", but stated that "everyone must be accountable before the law".
"As soon as the joint investigation team report comes, swift action will be taken," he vowed. "The government's priority is protection of all its citizens."
He added: "Still shocked at seeing the traumatised children who saw their parents shot before their eyes. Any parent would be shocked as they would think of their own children in such a traumatic situation. These children will now be fully looked after by the state as its responsibility."
While the CTD has done a great job in fight against terrorism, everyone must be accountable before the law. As soon as JIT report comes, swift action will be taken. The govt's priority is protection of all its citizens.
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Surviving child's account
The situation took a new twist when the injured minor son of the deceased parents narrated the firing incident in a video that flashed on television screens in the afternoon. It was actually an amateur video ─ one of probably many ─ that made it impossible for anyone to conceal facts about the deadly shooting.
The young boy’s was a horrific account that lent credence to the talk about it being possibly a case of mistaken identity.
He said the family was fired upon out of nowhere as they were travelling to Burewala from Lahore to attend the wedding of a paternal uncle of his.
“My father told them to take the money but spare us,” he said, but the plea had little effect on the law enforcers.
The child denied that there were any weapons in the car, and spoke of how he and his two younger sisters were temporarily left by the police at a petrol station, some kilometres from the crime scene, after the firing. The law enforcers returned some time later to take the three children to a nearby hospital.
Some witnesses quoted widely by TV channels corroborated the assertion that there had been no firing from those travelling in the ill-fated car. One witness said the elite police forced the vehicle to stop and fired at the car occupants from a close range.
Sahiwal 'encounter'
Khalil, a resident of Kot Lakhpat, Lahore, his wife Nabeela, their 13-year-old daughter, Areeba, and their neighbour, Zeeshan, were killed in the firing on their car near the toll plaza on GT Road in the Qadirabad area, while three other children in the car survived. Khalil and Nabeela's minor son sustained a bullet injury while their two other daughters remained unhurt.
Their relatives said they were heading to attend a wedding in Burewala.
CTD officials said those killed in the shooting were terrorists belonging to a proscribed militant organisation, Daesh. The CTD spokesperson identified one of them, Zeeshan, as an active member of the banned outfit, explaining that the terrorists used to travel with families to avoid police checking.
The CTD Sahiwal team was conducting a joint Intelligence-Based Operation on the basis of information from the CTD and a sensitive agency, the spokesperson said, adding that they had to retaliate when they came under fire from those in the car.
As the news flashed on TV screens, scores of relatives of the deceased family took to the streets, blocking traffic on the Lahore-Kasur road to protest the murder.
To ascertain facts, the prime minister ordered an immediate inquiry into the matter.
Later on Saturday evening, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar directed Inspector General of Punjab Police Amjad Javed Saleemi to ensure arrest of all the personnel involved in the killing of the four persons.
A Joint Investigation Team (JIT) was also constituted under the supervision of Additional IG Police Syed Ijaz Shah to investigate the incident.
Varying explanations
Varying versions put forward at different stages following the incident cast doubts over the CTD explanation.
The news broke when the CTD told the media that four suspects were killed in an encounter at the Sahiwal toll plaza near Qadirabad on Lahore-Multan motorway at noon. The officials initially described the shooting as a daring attempt of the law enforcers to rescue a group of kidnapped children from their captors.
However, it was soon replaced by another explanation by the officials who said some dangerous terrorists with links to Daesh were travelling in the car which was intercepted by the police near the toll plaza.
The CTD officials said Zeeshan was an active member of the banned organisation. "It was in continuation of the operation conducted in Faisalabad on January 16," said the CTD spokesperson. He said the CTD was tracking the remaining Daesh-linked terrorists in the Red Book, namely Shahid Jabbar and Abdul Rehman.
On Saturday morning, he added, intelligence information was received that they were travelling towards Sahiwal with arms and explosives.
"Today, they were warned to surrender but they started firing," he had said, adding that the terrorists namely Shahid Jabbar, Abdul Rehman and their unidentified accomplice fled the scene on a motorcycle while resorting to firing.
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