All witnesses of Sialkot lynching summoned

The Gujranwala ATC has summoned all witnesses of the Sialkot lynching case on February 25 and 26.

LAHORE: The Gujranwala Anti Terrorism Court (ATC) has summoned all witnesses of the Sialkot lynching case on February 25 and 26.

ATC Judge Chaudhry Mushtaq summoned all the witnesses to appear before the court and record their statements. Dr Shakeel Thakur, the lawyer for the family of the victims, Hafiz Mughees and Muneeb, while talking to The Express Tribune said, “In the last two hearings, the statements of five witnesses were recorded. The case is proceeding fast. The Lahore High Court has also directed to close the case soon and carry out the hearings on a day-to-day basis. So far, the statements of 16 witnesses have been recorded while those of 11 others are yet to be recorded. The statements of all the witnesses will be recorded next month, and if all goes well, the verdict is likely to be delivered in April.”

On Saturday all 27 nominated accused, including suspended DPO Sialkot Waqar Chohan appeared before the court, while two witnesses recorded their statements.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Lahore High Court granted bail to former SHO Rana Ilyas, one of the key accused in the lynching case.

Zara Butt, the uncle of the lynching victims, said: “We have been waiting for justice for the past six months and we are hopeful that the case will soon be decided.”

Butt said that the families of those who were in judicial lockup were still trying to influence them. “We are still being approached from different quarters to compromise and forgive the cops but we haven’t nominated a single policeman. The video footage shows everyone clearly,” he added.

It has been six months since the tragic lynching of the two brothers, Mughees and Muneeb in Sialkot on August 15 last year.

The prime minister, president, interior minister, chief minister, governor and other top officials had assured the family of justice and promised to complete the case within a few days. The case, however, didn’t proceed for a month and a half when a former ATC Judge Iftikhar Hussain Shah was transferred.

The case is now being heard by the ATC Gujranwala against the 28 accused including 10 policemen and 11 civilians.  There are 27 nominated accused and one unidentified accused in the case. All nominated accused are in the judicial lock-up, except suspended DPO Chohan and SHO Ilyas, who are out on bail.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2011.