A Pakistani prosecutor said Wednesday he would seek murder charges against six soldiers and a civilian remanded over the killing of an unarmed man in a public park that shocked the nation.
Paramilitary Rangers shot dead Sarfaraz Shah, 22, in Karachi last Wednesday after he was accused of robbery, but his family has demanded justice, insisting he was an innocent student. The killing was filmed by a television cameraman.
Public prosecutor Arshad Iqbal Cheema told AFP that the accused were brought before an anti-terrorism court on Wednesday.
"Police said they required more time (for investigation) on which the judge extended the remand until Friday," he said.
"The accused will be brought before the court after two days and a charge sheet against them for murder will be presented," Cheema said.
In an earlier court hearing, two witnesses identified the seven men in the dock as having been present at the time of the killing and one of the Rangers as having shot Shah, a court official told AFP.
The witnesses were cameraman Abdul Salam Soomro and park official Abdul Rashid, the official said.
Cheema said that the witnesses "in an explicit manner narrated how the murder took place".
Pakistan on Tuesday removed from their jobs the heads of police and Rangers in Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital.
Widely aired footage of the killing showed a clean-shaven man, wearing black trousers and a navy shirt pleading for his life as a soldier cocked his rifle at his neck, then shot him twice in the hand and thigh.
As his blood poured onto the ground, the man begged for help from soldiers -- who appeared to do nothing but watch -- until he fell unconscious.
Similar killings last month of five unarmed Chechens, one of them a pregnant woman, in the city of Quetta are also under investigation. AFP
