KARACHI - A Pakistani court on Wednesday indicted six paramilitary
soldiers and a civilian on murder and terrorism charges after an
unarmed man was shot dead on camera in a public park, lawyers said.
If convicted, the seven accused could be sentenced to death.
Members
of Pakistan's Rangers paramilitary force were caught on film killing
Sarfaraz Shah, 22, after a civilian dragged him over to the troops,
accusing him of robbery in Karachi on June 8.
The daylight
murder was filmed by a cameraman and broadcast round the clock on
television, shocking the country with the apparent brutality of trained
officers in a country awash with violence blamed on the Taliban and
Al-Qaeda.
"The court has formally framed charges of murder and
terrorism against all the accused," public prosecutor Mohammad Khan
Buriro told reporters.
The accused pleaded not guilty and will
contest the charges after appearing before judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso on
Wednesday, lawyers said.
Buriro said the trial would begin on Thursday and that a total of 46 witnesses would be called to the stand.
"They are innocent and will contest the charges," said M R Sayed, one of the lawyers for the defence.
"We have asked the court to provide the investigation report compiled by the government joint investigation team," he added.
The formal indictment had been repeatedly delayed to allow the accused time to hire lawyers.
Facing
down a media tirade, the government has already taken the rare step of
removing the provincial chiefs of police and Rangers in Karachi.
The widely aired footage of the killing showed a clean-shaven and
unarmed Shah, wearing black trousers and a navy shirt, pleading for his
life before he was shot twice.
He then begged for help while the soldiers appeared to do nothing but watch him fall slowly and lapse into unconsciousness.
Despite
no evidence in the video that Shah had a weapon, Pakistani Interior
Minister Rehman Malik, whose ministry is responsible for the Rangers,
claimed last week that the victim had been carrying an unlicensed
weapon.
The killings last month by security forces of five
unarmed Chechens, one of them a pregnant woman, in the city of Quetta
are also under investigation.
Answerable to the interior
ministry, more than 10,000 paramilitary troops patrol Karachi,
Pakistan's financial capital, and its surroundings to combat routine
ethnic, political and Islamist violence in the city of 16 million.
Human
rights activists condemned Shah's killing and complain that the
Rangers, established for combat and border duty, are neither equipped
nor trained for civilian areas. AFP
