Five police officers are facing murder charges and several high-ranking security officials have been removed from their posts after the deaths of a family in Pakistan sparked nationwide outrage.

In a country where extrajudicial killings are worryingly common and euphemistically dubbed “encounters”, a spotlight has been put on the actions of a group of armed counterterror police by the brave testimony of three young children.

On Saturday, police in Punjab said they had carried out a successful operation to stop the car of a suspected Isis leader, Zeeshan Javed, and that he and his associates – some on motorbikes – were killed after they opened fire on police.

Yet in the days since, that account of events has fallen apart. Officials now admit that Javed was travelling in the car with a grocery store owner named Mohammad Khalil, his wife and their four children.

Pictures of the aftermath showed the bodies of Javed, Khalil, his wife Nabeela and their 12-year-old daughter Areeba slumped over in the car, unarmed and defenceless.

Forgotten Women: The sisters fighting for human rights in Pakistan Show all 5 1 /5 Forgotten Women: The sisters fighting for human rights in Pakistan Forgotten Women: The sisters fighting for human rights in Pakistan Human rights activist Gulalai Ismail was apprehended by Pakistan officials upon landing in Islamabad on Friday after a flight from London Sent in by Gulalai Ismail's sister Saba (leave off credit) Forgotten Women: The sisters fighting for human rights in Pakistan Human rights activist Gulalai Ismail was apprehended by Pakistan officials upon landing in Islamabad after a flight from London Forgotten Women: The sisters fighting for human rights in Pakistan Human rights activist Gulalai Ismail was apprehended by Pakistan officials upon landing in Islamabad on Friday after a flight from London Sent in by Gulalai Ismail's sister Saba (leave off credit) Forgotten Women: The sisters fighting for human rights in Pakistan Human rights activist Gulalai Ismail was apprehended by Pakistan officials upon landing in Islamabad on Friday after a flight from London Sent in by Gulalai Ismail's sister Saba (leave off credit) Forgotten Women: The sisters fighting for human rights in Pakistan Human rights activist Gulalai Ismail was apprehended by Pakistan officials upon landing in Islamabad on Friday after a flight from London Sent in by Gulalai Ismail's sister Saba (leave off credit)

And videos taken by passersby and circulated on social media showed both police firing on the car without reply, and officers discovering the three surviving children and leading them away from the scene of the slaughter.

Authorities in Punjab insist that Javed was a legitimate target for a counterterror operation, and in spite of the outcry have continued to refer to the deaths of the Khalil family members as “collateral damage”.

Neighbours and friends described Javed as being affiliated with Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith, a fundamentalist group, according to BBC Urdu – but the police have produced no evidence to suggest he was linked to Isis.

An initial investigation has found that the Khalil family “were innocent”, and that high ranking officials in the counter terror police force “were responsible”, Punjab law minister Raja Basharat said.

Mr Basharat said the provincial government had removed the head of the counter terrorism department (CTD) and three other officials who will all face disciplinary action. The five police officers who shot at the car during the incident in Sahiwal town will be charged with murder and tried in an anti-terrorism court, he told reporters.

That may not be enough to placate either the public anger or the disgust from the central government at what happened, owing particularly to the powerful testimony given by the surviving Khalil children.

Umair Khalil, nine, was wounded in the leg during the shooting but was among the first to question the police account of what happened when he started talking to doctors and reporters at hospital.

Video of Umair’s account – which was widely shared online – showed him explaining how he and his family were travelling with a friend of his father to attend a wedding when they were stopped at a toll booth.

“My father told them to take our money and not to shoot their guns. But they started firing,” he said.

Prime minister Imran Khan said he was “shocked at seeing the traumatised children who saw their parents shot before their eyes”, and promised the state would care for the survivors.

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“The grief and anger ... Is understandable and justified,” Mr Khan tweeted on Monday, referring to the public outrage.

He said anyone found guilty would be handed “exemplary punishment”.