TTAP demands court protection for evidence in Lahore assault case

LAHORE: General Secretary Haqooq-e-Khalq Party and Chief Organiser TTAP Punjab Ammar Ali Jan, and Information Secretary TTAP Punjab Shayan Bashir, have demanded court-supervised protection of the victims evidence in the Lahore abduction and assault case, after the four principal accused were remanded today to police custody for a further five days.

In a joint statement, they said the investigation must now answer a contradiction on its own record. The victims statements before a judicial magistrate describe reaching safety after the vehicle carrying them crashed and ordinary citizens responded to their cries, and one statement alleges that the first police personnel they encountered attempted to take them onward to the airport.

The police leadership has instead described a swift rescue. Both accounts cannot be true, and the answer will decide whether Punjab’s police can investigate the powerful the way they investigate the powerless.

The main accused is named in reports as a relative of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, and the statements on record allege abduction, assault and a payment of one hundred thousand dollars before release.

The leaders demanded that the court secure the victims testimony through protected, court-supervised video arrangements so the prosecution cannot collapse for want of witnesses, that every officer who handled the first response be identified on the record, and that the conduct of that response be examined alongside the crime itself. A province where guests of the state are safe only by accident cannot claim the rule of law.