Pakistan Rangers personnel shot dead 17-year-old Sarfaraz Shah at Boat Basin in Karachi on Wednesday, claiming that he was killed in an encounter after he was caught mugging people in the area, a private TV channel reported.
Video footage of what can only be described as a cold-blooded murder of an unarmed civilian, however, surfaced later in the day, showing a group of Rangers personnel roughing up a young man, then one of them tossing him to the ground and shooting him in the abdomen with his rifle from mere feet away as his colleagues looked on.
Sarfaraz was seen begging the Ranger for his life, but the Ranger – on a power trip similar to the one displayed by Frontier Corps personnel in Kharotabad a few weeks ago, who killed 5 unarmed Russian nationals on “suspicion” of being armed suicide bombers – shot him heartlessly.
Sarfaraz was the brother of journalist Salik Shah. A case was registered against Rangers Alam Zeb and Akhtar on Salik’s behalf on Sindh Chief Minister (CM) Qaim Ali Shah’s orders after Sarfaraz’s relatives and friends staged a protest sit-in outside CM’s Secretariat.