KARACHI — A Pakistani court on Friday ordered six soldiers and a
civilian into indefinite judicial remand pending formal charges over
the killing of an unarmed man in a public park that has shocked the
nation.
Paramilitary Rangers shot dead Sarfaraz Shah, 22, in
Karachi on June 8 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 and subsequently broadcast round-the-clock on national television channels.
Public prosecutor Arshad Iqbal Cheema told AFP that the accused were brought before an anti-terrorism court on Friday.
"Police
investigators told the court that they have completed investigation and
did not require custody of the accused on which the judge sent them to
jail (for judicial remand)," Cheema said.
He said police had
handed over their investigation report. "I will now scrutinise it and
submit the formal charge sheet against the accused in the court either
tomorrow or on Monday."
In a rare move towards accountability,
Pakistan this week removed 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 before he was shot twice.
He then begged for help while the soldiers appeared to do nothing but watch him fall slowly and agonisingly 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
