People across the country were shocked and devastated by the brutal murder of a young man by Rangers personnel in Karachi on Wednesday, filmed live and broadcast on television all day long, as the Supreme Court took suo motu notice late on Thursday of the cold-blooded killing, summoning top provincial officials to answer for the wanton murder today (Friday). Five members of the Pakistan Rangers rounded on 25-year-old Sarfaraz Shah in Clifton on Wednesday, claiming he had tried to rob a policeman’s family. A police official later told AFP that only a toy gun had been seized from the young man. Footage of the incident, filmed by an unidentified cameraman, was also uploaded to video-sharing website YouTube. The clean-shaven man, wearing black trousers and a navy shirt, is seen crying and pleading for his life as a soldier cocked his rifle at his neck.
A soldier is heard saying: “This is the man” to which the man responds: “I am helpless, my friend”. “Please do not fire, please don’t, please, please!” he cried. After being shot in the hand and thigh, as blood seeps onto the ground, the man pleads: “Please take me to the hospital, please take me, please save me, o friend save me.” He tries to stand, but quickly crumples to the ground. A soldier is heard saying: “Ok, that’s enough”. The man continues to beg for help as soldiers appear to amble around, watching him fall unconscious and bleed to death. Several hundred people attended Shah’s funeral in Karachi, and mourners chanted “the Rangers are killers”. Late on Wednesday, Shah’s relatives took his body to the house of the Sindh chief minister, demanding the soldiers be arrested.
The victim’s older brother Salik, who is a TV reporter, said Sarfaraz – who was initially named wrongly by police as Sabir – was a student who had been looking for work to support his poverty-stricken family. He said charges from the Rangers that he was a robber “are ridiculous and criminal”. Leading human rights activists and lawyers condemned the killing as a sign of how brutalised Pakistan had become. Zohra Yusuf, chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said the country had descended into a “trigger-happy society”. Federal Union of Journalists Secretary General Amin Yousuf said a local TV channel’s cameraman, who filmed the killing while he was in the area to do a story on the park, was now in danger. “This act is extremely unlawful, even if the youth was a robber it did not merit killing him like this,” Interior Minister Rehman Malik said.
Rangers Sindh Director General Aijaz Choudhry told reporters that the murder could not be justified, and an inquiry was underway.
Meanwhile, the SC formed a 5-member larger bench, headed by the CJP, to hear the suo motu case.
BRAVO RANGERS, the animals.
Never in past twenty years,the list of target killers of thousands,and bathakhors of billion of dollars was revealed publican by no less person than Interior minister ,MR Zulfikar Mirza publicly and was removed by PPP-Zardari.Because MQM blackmailed their political position to rock the government and as usual PPP-Zardari buried the report under his 'kursi.'.Why the killing spree end when government does not take action against the killers of whom seven intelligence agencies give proofs?Such are the reasons of lawlessness as of yesterday of young lad killed by 'rangers' and earlier killing case of 'akrotabad' Quetta.The tragedy is that the blackmailer coalition cartel stay put in government,still give sermons of righteousness to be fool public but must keep their 'kursis' to save the coalition of evils that has ruined Pakistan and the poor in last 45 months.May ALLAH ruin them all.
Absolutely sickening! I can't believe it! This sounds just like the police in Canada. June 11 2011 Calgary Police kill again. The man they killed held a knife, supposedly. I have more hope for India getting justice than I do for Canada at this point.
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