Afsar Khan, the civilian among six convicted for the extrajudicial killing of Sarfaraz Shah, challenged on Tuesday the verdict of an anti-terrorism court (ATC) that had sentenced him to life imprisonment in the Sindh High Court (SHC).
The applicant filed an application, through his counsel Aamir Warraich advocate, pleading to set aside the special court’s verdict and declare him innocent, as he was not involved in killing the unarmed youth.
Challenging the ATC ruling, the petitioner’s counsel pleaded the court for immediate hearing of the case.
The counsel submitted that his client had no connection with the offence nor had he any intention to kill Shah. Afsar had only handed over the youth to the Rangers personnel and he was not aware of how they would treat him.
On August 12, an ATC had awarded death sentence to a Rangers constable and life imprisonment to six others, including Afsar and five paramilitary personnel.
Constable Shahid Zafar was given death sentence and sub-inspector Bahaur Rehman, Lance Naik Liaquat Ali, constables Mohammad Tariq, Manthar Ali and Afzal Khan, and civilian Afsar were sentenced for life. The court also imposed fine worth Rs 200,000 on the guilty.
On June 8, 22-year-old Sarfaraz Shah was shot dead by Rangers personnel, after being handed over to the law enforcers by private contractor Afsar, who accused the youth of robbery.
A cameraman, who shot the entire incident, later released the footage showing that the Rangers personnel shot the unarmed youth twice, injuring him seriously and watched him bleed to death instead of shifting him to a hospital for urgent medical treatment.
Taking suo motu notice of the case, the Supreme Court of Pakistan directed the government to immediately remove Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) director general and Sindh inspector general of police. The court had also directed that the trial court should decide the case within a month. However, the ATC announced its verdict on August 12, a month after the stipulated time.
The prosecution had named 47 witnesses in the charge-sheet in addition to producing a list of 14 articles, including the crime weapon, to prove its case.
