Sahiwal encounter victim's son records his statement before JIT

LAHORE: Umair Khalil, the son of Sahiwal encounter victim Khalil has recorded his statement before the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) probing the shootout which resulted in killing of his mother, father and sister, ARY News reported on Friday.

The child in his statement, a copy of which is available with ARY News, says that the family left the home at 8 am and when they reached Qadirabad, someone shot at the car from behind.

“After the shot was fired, the car bumped into a sidewalk and came to a halt; soon, two police mobiles stopped by the car out of which came masked cops who fired at and killed ‘uncle’ Zeeshan”, said the child in his statement.

The statement says that after that, a policeman started talking to someone on the phone.

“My father asked the cops to take whatever they wanted but spare their lives”, he says in his statement, but adds that after the cop was done talking on the phone, he ordered his fellows to open the fire again.

“Dad, mom, and my sister died of the firing; Dad, before he was killed, tried to hide Muneeba while mom tried to save me and Hadia”, Umair’s statement reads.

“The policemen then took me and my sisters out of the car and then sprayed the car with bullets again”, he said.

Afterwards, the statement reads, the policemen put the kids in a police mobile and threw them in the middle of nowhere.

“Someone picked up from that wilderness and dropped us at a fuel station; from there, policemen picked us up again and dropped us in the hospital”, the statement adds.

Umair maintains that the police’s story that firing by “terrorists” on a motorcycle killed the unfortunate family was a “lie”, and so was the story that the car was filled with suicide jackets, arms.