KARACHI: The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Friday awarded death sentence to the Rangers official Shahid Zafar while the other six personnel have been sentenced to life in prison in Sarfaraz Shah killing case.
According to Media Reports, prosecution in Sarfaraz Shah’s extrajudicial killing trial sought on Tuesday the death sentence for all the seven defendants — six Rangers personnel and a private contractor — for murdering an unarmed citizen in cold blood.
An anti-terrorism court (ATC), after hearing the closing arguments of the special public prosecutor (SPP) and the defence counsel, reserved the judgment till August 12.
The Rangers personnel — Sub-Inspector Bahur Rehman, Lance Naik Liaquat Ali and constables Mohammad Tariq, Minthar Ali, Shahid Zafar and Mohammad Afzal — and private contractor Afsar Khan are facing charges of murdering 22-year-old Shah with their common intention at the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park in the Clifton area on June 8.
Special Public Prosecutor Mohammad Khan Buriro submitted that the prosecution had produced sufficient trustworthy evidence to prove the guilt of the defendants who were involved in the killing of an unarmed citizen with their common intention.
“All the 20 prosecution witnesses, including eyewitnesses Abdul Rasheed, Mohammad Shahid, Mohammad Ramzan, Zahid Essa Khokar and Abdul Salam Soomro, have supported the prosecution case in their testimonies and identified all the defendants as culprits,” he said.
Defending the insertion of terrorism clause in the charge-sheet, SPP Buriro submitted that the killing of unarmed Shah had shocked the entire nation and created a sense of fear and terrorism in society, which was evident from the statements of the prosecution witnesses.
He said society got terrorised after seeing footage of Shah’s killing by the Rangers personnel. He said that a ballistic expert’s report also confirmed the matching of empties with the rifle of the Rangers constable Shahid Zafar who fired twice on Shah, who later succumbed to his injuries.
The prosecutor also questioned the legality of the testimonies of the defence counsel, Alam Zaib and Colonel Suleman, submitting that their testimonies could not be relied upon in the eyes of the law. He also referred to numerous citations of superior courts to establish his case against the defendants, and prayed to the court to award the death sentence to all the defendants.
Earlier, Shaukat Hayat, the defence counsel for Shahid Zafar and Mohammad Afzal, claimed immunity for the personnel of armed forces, saying they were on lawful duty and the act was accidental.
He argued that the Criminal Procedure Code, the Anti- Terrorism Act and the Rangers Act protected the armed forces personnel from the prosecution of an act that was done in good faith during the discharge of their duty.
He further submitted that the prosecution had concealed the role of deceased, who was caught by the co-defendant, Afsar Khan, while committing robbery and handed him over to the Rangers personnel. He said it was the Rangers personnel who shifted the injured Shah to hospital by calling an ambulance, as the Rangers mobile had no first aid facility; therefore, their act could not be termed terrorism.
He contended that the Rangers personnel had to remain vigilant all the time due to a worsening law and order situation and accidental fire could not be ruled out, as the personnel remained in “panic” and “in tense situation” as everything could happen anytime.
The counsel argued that the act of the Rangers personnel was not intentional or pre-designed as the Rangers personnel cautioned Shah to sit down but he tried to snatch the rifle of one of the Rangers personnel, which resulted in his opening fire in panic.
He submitted that there was no iota of evidence that they had common intention to kill Shah and prayed to the court to acquit the defendants from the prosecution charges.
Afsar Khan’s counsel, Amir Warraich, submitted that his client was falsely implicated in the case due to a tussle between the Rangers and the police, as being a responsible citizen his client foiled a robbery attempt and handed over Shah to the Rangers officials.
He said that the police did not implicate police constable Alam Zaib in the case who had the same role that was assigned to him by the police in the instant case. He sought acquittal of Afsar Khan from the charges.
After hearing the closing arguments of the defence counsel and the special public prosecutor, the ATC headed by Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso reserved the judgment till August 12.
According to the prosecution, Shah, a brother of a local TV journalist, was killed in cold blood by the Rangers personnel on June 8 after he was handed over to them by the private contractor, Afsar Khan, accusing him of committing theft and looting.
However, TV footage of the killing showed that the Rangers personnel shot the unarmed Shah twice and after injuring him seriously they watched him bleed to death instead of shifting him to hospital for medical treatment. The defendants, however, denied the prosecution charges.
The Rangers personnel and the private contractor were arrested under the anti-terrorism law as well as murder charges under the Pakistan Penal Code after the Supreme Court that took suo moto notice of the brutal murder.
The case was 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.
The police charge-sheeted the Rangers personnel and the private contractor for deliberately murdering Shah, submitting that the accused first caused injuries to the young man with their common intention and later denied him medical treatment. Shah succumbed to his injuries due to excessive bleeding and lack of medical care, the police charged.
The prosecution had named 46 witnesses, including eyewitnesses, in the charge sheet in addition to a list of 14 articles, including the crime weapon, to prove the guilt of the accused.
The trial had to be concluded within 30 days as per the directives of the Supreme Court, which had ordered that the trial be conducted on a day-to-day basis and completed within a month.
However, owing to the lawyers’ boycott of court proceedings against the recent target killings of lawyers the hearing of the case was affected and concluded on August 9. Online
