Pakistan probe finds police wrongly killed couple, daughter

LAHORE, Pakistan – A provincial minister says five police officers have been charged with murder after a probe into a weekend shootout concluded that three people were wrongly killed in a botched operation on a highway.

At Tuesday’s news conference, Raja Bisharat said four police officers were also charged with mismanaging Saturday’s raid on a car that left four civilians dead in Sahiwal.

Saturday’s shootout drew nationwide condemnation after police killed grocery store owner Mohammad Khalil, his wife and his teenage daughter.

Bisharat said an investigation into the death of a fourth person, a man, was ongoing, although witnesses say police killed the four in cold blood despite seeing children in the car.

Authorities say the slain were unarmed and Khalil’s three surviving children — who witnessed the killings — are still traumatized.