Six eyewitnesses who appeared in an anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Lahore on Saturday in connection with the hearing of a 10-year-old Model Town killings case, said that these were the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) workers who had provoked the police by firing at them from the rooftop of Minhajul Quran’s building in Model Town, Lahore in 2014, resulting in the deaths of seven citizens, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

ATC judge Arshad Javed heard the case while Burhan Moazzam Malik Advocate represented the police officials in the court. 

Eyewitnesses, Khawaja Sohail, Waqas Ahmad Qureshi, Malik Salim, Yasmin Mukhtar Ahmad, Ghulam Shabbir and Imran Hussain, all residents of Model Town, told the court that their homes were five to six hundred meters from Minhajul Quran.

They said that not only the PAT workers fired at the police personnel but they also hurled petrol bombs at them.  

Police only teargassed them, and did not open fire at them, the eyewitnesses said.

They told the court that not only that the party workers also attacked the cops with iron rods and threw stones at them, resulting in injuries to 31 of them.

They further said that the police personnel and Municipal Corporation employees kept running to save their lives.

Police had only gone there to remove the barriers placed by the PAT workers on the road.

So far 104 witnesses have recorded their statements in the case, while four accused, including former SP Umar Virk, have filed their acquittal pleas.

The other three accused are ex-DSP Khalid Abu Bakr, another ex-DSP Mian Shafqat, and former inspector Bashir Niazi.

Five suspects, including ex-IGP, Punjab Mushtaq Sukhera and DIG Operations Rana Abdul Jabbar, have already been acquitted in the case.

Later the court adjourned the case’s hearing until July 13.

Reporter: Jamaluddin Jamali