After four people–including a man, his wife and their teenage girl–were killed and a boy injured in a shady encounter by the CTD police on a highway in the Sahiwal district, there were strong appeals for justice.

The dead have been identified by relatives as residents of the Kot Lakhpat region of Lahore. They included the owner of the grocery store Mohammad Khalil, 42, his wife Nabila, 38, their 13-year-old Areeba daughter and friend Zeeshan Javed.

Khalil was survived by his injured son, Umair, and two daughters–who were also in the car, supposedly sprayed with police bullets, but fortunately survived. Zeeshan was driving the car at the time of the incident on the GT Road in Qadirabad.

The police first described the victims as “kidnappers “and then as “terrorists “who had links with Daesh and were involved in the murder of ISI officers and the kidnapping of the son of former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. They also claimed that the deceased had been killed in a “shootout “after the security personnel had “attacked “them.

However, these claims contradicted the information provided by the eyewitnesses, the statement of one of the injured children and the family sources of the deceased, who said that the victims were on their way to a wedding in Burewala.

The apparent mistakes of the police have led to public upheaval in the social media and an intensive coverage of the incident by electronic media.

Feeling the heat, Prime Minister Imran Khan contacted Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and sought a report.

Prime Minister Imran Khan contacted Punjab ‘s Chief Minister, Usman Buzdar, with a sense of warmth and asked for a report. The media wing of PM Office said in a press release that he directed the CM for a thorough and transparent investigation of the incident.

The chief minister took notice of the incident, sought a report and later at night also visited the victim children at the hospital.

The Chief Minister said that the officers who shot the vehicle and killed the victims were in CTD custody and investigated. He announced that the State would look after the orphans.