An anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Wednesday indicted six Rangers’ personnel and a civilian for their involvement in the June 8 shooting of an unarmed youth in Karachi Rangers personnel were caught on film killing Sarfaraz Shah, 22, after a civilian dragged him over to the troops, accusing him of robbery. The brutal act was filmed by a cameraman of a private TV channel, Salam Soomro
The accused pleaded not guilty before the court.
ATC 1 Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso, after receiving the charge sheets by the prosecution, framed charges against all the accused including Sub-Inspector Bahaur Rehman, Lance Naik Liaquat Ali, constables Muhammad Tariq, Manthar Ali, Shahid Zafar, Afzal Khan and an employee of the park, Afsar Khan.
Advocate Shoukat Hayat submitted his advocacy papers for the accused Shahid Zafar and Muhammad Afzal, Advocate MR Syed for accused Bahaur Rehman and Liaqat, Advocate N Randhawa for Muhammad Tariq and Manthar and Advovate Aamir Warraich for Afsar Khan.
Following the court’s proceeding, special public prosecutor Muhammad Khan Buriro told reporters that the accused were produced before the trail court where they were indicted.
The trial would begin today (Thursday) and the prosecution would produce 46 witnesses in the trail court.
Meanwhile, one of the defence counsels, MR Syed stated that his clients were innocent and would contest the charges in the trail court.
Investigation report: He said the defence counsels had sought investigation report compiled by the government’s joint investigation team.
According to the prosecution, Shah’s murder was an extrajudicial killing by personnel of paramilitary force in a public park after he was handed over to them by the private contractor, Afsar Khan, accusing him of theft. However, TV footage of Shah’s killing showed that the Rangers personnel shot the unarmed youth twice and after injuring him seriously they watched him bleed to death instead of taking him to hospital for medical treatment. The case had been registered against the accused by the Boat Basin police under Sections 302, 34 and 36 of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.
