Staff Reporter
Lahore
A special anti-terrorism court in Lahore on Thursday acquitted all suspects in the Sahiwal encounter case giving them the benefit of doubt.
The court announced the verdict after the suspects’ lawyers completed a cross-questioning of the testimonies of government witnesses. ATC-I Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta heard the case. During hearings of the case, the court had recorded statements of 49 witnesses, including close relatives of a victim Zeeshan and another victim Mohammad Khalil. During the proceedings, all the suspects appeared before the court.
The injured witnesses [children of Khalil who were accompanying the victim when he was targeted] had not identified the suspects nor were the suspects identified during photogrammetric tests. The court added that the official who had provided the suspects with the weapons said he was returned all the weapons and bullets. In January, Mohammad Khalil, his wife and their three children were travelling in a car, with their neighbour Zeeshan behind the steering wheel, when CTD personnel stopped the vehicle and opened fire on the passengers suspecting them to be terrorists.
