LAHORE: Lawyers and traders on Monday staged protests and observed strikes in cities across Punjab against the killings of three members of the same family in a Sahiwal police ‘encounter’.
District bar associations in Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Muzaffargarh, Vehari, Khanewal and Dera Ghazi Khan are observing a complete strike against the killings. A strike is also being observed in Kamalia, Toba Tek Singh and lawyers are demanding that action be taken against those responsible.
In Peshawar as well, lawyers are boycotting proceedings of the high court and local courts on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council’s call. Meanwhile, traders are observing a strike in Burewala, Vehari.
A petition seeking a judicial inquiry into the killings has also been filed in the Lahore High Court. Four people – including three members of a family – were killed in an alleged encounter in Sahiwal on Saturday. CTD personnel said they had killed a local commander of militant organisation Daesh and three others in the operation. However, eyewitnesses and three children, whose parents were killed, disputed the claim.
Eyewitnesses said the people in the car did not fire at officials, nor were any explosives recovered from the vehicle. Meanwhile, the children said that those killed were their parents and sister and not kidnappers as earlier claimed by the police.
The CTD officials involved in the alleged extrajudicial killing were taken into custody on the orders of Punjab chief minister Usman Buzdar.
