Sarfraz Shah murder case: One sentenced to death, five get life

The court handed down life imprisonment to the other five and ordered them to pay 100,000 rupees compensation to Shahs family.Anti terrorist Court court Friday found a Ranger guilty of murder and sentenced him to death for killing an unarmed man at point blank range in a public park two months ago.The judge sentenced five other soldiers to life imprisonment over the June 8 killing of Sarfaraz Shah, 22, which was captured live on camera, as well as the civilian who accused him of robbery and dragged him over to the soldiers.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.Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso read out the verdict before an anti-terrorism court in Karachi, finding paramilitary soldier Shahid Zafar guilty of pulling the trigger, and sentenced him to death and a fine of 200,000 rupees Sarfraz Shah, a brother of a local TV journalist, was killed by the Rangers personnel in cold blood on June 8 when he was handed over to them by the private contractor Afsar Khan, accusing him of committing theft and looting.However, TV footage of Sarfraz’s killing showed that the Rangers personnel shot the unarmed Shah twice and after injuring him seriously they let him die without shifting him to hospital for medical treatment.The prosecution had examined 20 witnesses in order to establish its case against the accused persons while the defence side examined three witnesses to prove that the accused were innocent.A case was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on a complaint of the deceased’s brother at the Boat Basin police station. Later, Section 36 (effect caused partly by act and partly by omission) of the PPC and Section 7 of the ATA, 1997 was also incorporated in the charge-sheet.