PESHAWAR: The Jamaat-i-Islami has expressed reservations about the recent encounter of police with ‘terrorists’ in Hayatabad and demanded a judicial probe into it.

JI Khyber district chief Shah Faisal Afridi told a presser here on Saturday that there were doubts about the nature of the Hayatabad Township operation and therefore, it should be properly investigated by an impartial judicial commission.

He said the five people were killed in the Hayatabad operation and four of them belonged to Qamarkhel and one to Kokikhel tribe of Khyber district.

“We will raise this issue in and outside parliament,” he said.

Mr Afridi resented the killing of tribesmen from Khyber tribal district claiming that there was no evidence of the involvement of the slain people in any kind of terrorist activity in their areas and therefore, the encounter had caused unrest among residents.

He said the killing of ‘innocent’ people in the encounter was a sheer injustice meted out to the residents of Khyber district, who along with other tribal people would raise voice against it.

The JI leader said Amjad, who was killed in the encounter, served in the provincial food inspection team, while Tariq and Saeed belonged to Qamarkhel tribe and their uncle was a government employee.

He claimed that a resident, Saeed, had been missing since the encounter took place.

Mr Afridi demanded his immediate release.

He said most of the people killed by the police

The JI leader said if the government didn’t order judicial probe into the killings, the people would believe that the province’s police killed innocent people in encounters.

He declared the encounter the state-sponsored terrorism and said a judicial commission should be formed without delay to look into it.

Mr Afridi demanded the registration of an FIR against Prime Minister Imran Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor Shah Farman and Chief Minister Mahmood Khan to ensure the dispensation of justice to the families of those killed in the encounter.

Published in Dawn, April 21st, 2019