'CTD threatening me for taking up Sahiwal case', claims lawyer

SAHIWAL: The Sahiwal shootout victims’ lawyer Syed Shahbaz Bukhari on Monday claimed that Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) officials were threatening him to drop the case, reported ARY News.

While speaking to the media, Bukhari said he had recorded threatening calls from CTD personnel and provided its data and record to the joint investigation team probing the Sahiwal encounter.

Bukhari was hired by the brother of Khalil, Muhammad Jalil, who was killed by the CTD along with his wife and daughter in the Jan 19 shootout.

He claimed that the CTD were trying to protect it’s personnel guilty of killing an innocent family. The lawyer urged Prime Minister Imran Khan to take notice of the misuse of authority by the CTD.

Four people, including two women, were killed in a shady encounter by the CTD on a highway in the Qadirabad area of Sahiwal district.

The Sahiwal incident had sent shock waves across the country after one of the surviving children who witnessed the episode refuted the CTD version of events.

The CTD had identified one of the deceased as Zeeshan who was wanted in several cases of crime, including the kidnapping of Ali Haider Gilani, the son of former premier Yousuf Raza Gilani, and several American citizens. It also says he was the deputy chief of a banned outfit.

The CTD had insisted that Zeeshan would provide shelter to terrorists. “A group of terrorists had planned an attack at some places and Zeeshan was travelling to provide them explosives.”