Pakistan authorities are investigating a
video (warning: highly disturbing content) which appears to show the shooting of an unarmed man by five Karachi soldiers.
Major General Aijaz Chaudhry, the chief ranger for Sindh province, said the inquiry was set up after footage of the alleged killing on Thursday of Afsa Shah, 22, appeared on local television stations and the internet website, YouTube.
Shah is alleged to have attempted to steal from a policeman's family in Clifton, Karachi's most exclusive neighbourhood, on Wednesday.
Shah's brother, Salik, a local TV crime reporter, denied Afsar was a robber and accused the soldiers, also known as rangers, of shooting an innocent person.
"My brother has been killed extra judicially. My innocent brother has been killed brutally by the Rangers," said Salik. "What harm has he inflicted on anybody?"
The footage of the alleged brutal killing of the man has outraged Pakistanis.
Many people in Pakistan are already losing confidence in the national military, following the US killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan and recurring fatal US drone attacks within Pakistan's borders.
The graphic video appears to depicting the young man pleading for his life before he is shot in the hand and thigh by a soldier and then left to die.
The footage sparked anger from the hundreds of mourners that attended Shah's funeral.
Many chanted "the rangers are killers" and demonstrators in the streets of Karachi demanded "hang the killers".
Rehman Malik, the Pakistan interior minister, said: "This act is extremely unlawful, even if the youth was a robber it did not merit to kill him like this."
Police official Tariq Dharejo told the AFP news agency that the soldiers were in rangers' custody but would be handed over to police and that legal proceedings would begin after an internal inquiry.
Last month, security forces shot dead five unarmed Chechens at a checkpoint near the southwestern city of Quetta. One of them was a pregnant woman.
Officials initially claimed the five were suicide bombers, but footage showed them to be unarmed and dispelled the government's claim.
Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Zohra Yusuf, said the country had descended into a "trigger-happy society where shoot-to-kill has become routine practice for the law enforcement agencies".
Source:
Al Jazeera, June 10, 2011
June 13, 2011 UPDATE
Pakistani paramilitary forces to be tried in anti-terrorist court
(CNN) -- Six members of Pakistan's paramilitary forces accused of killing an unarmed teenager last week have been turned over to police and will be tried under the country's terrorism act, a police official said Monday.
The Supreme Court has sent the case to an anti-terrorist court, which was ordered to conclude proceedings within a month, said Ahtisham Ali, a senior Karachi police official.
Anti-Terrorist Courts in Pakistan are special courts where hearings are expedited and decisions come more quickly than in the regular court system.
The accused -- members of the Sindh Rangers -- can be seen opening fire on 17-year-old Sarfraz Shah in a chilling video captured by a local television cameraman and broadcast across Pakistan's networks last week.
Before being shot twice, Shah pleads with the men carrying automatic rifles. "I am helpless," he cries. "Please do not fire."
The incident was the latest in a series of human rights incidents that has horrified the south Asian nation and deeply eroded public confidence in security agencies.
"This kind of anger among the public and even politicians hasn't been seen before," said Zohra Yusuf, chairwoman of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission.
"It was the way the young man was brutally shot dead in close quarters," she said. "And the footage showed very clearly that he was not armed. The footage itself is so crystal clear. It tells the whole story."
Shah tried to rob people at a park named in honor of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
Karachi police official Rafiq Gulsaid Shah pointed a pistol and wanted to steal cash and cell phones.
He was handed over to park security and then to the Rangers.
Shah apparently tried to snatch the Rangers' guns, Gul said. That's when the soldiers opened fire.
The video shows Shah reaching for their weapons before backing away.
Pakistan's Supreme Court ordered Friday transfers for the heads of the Sindh Rangers and the provincial police force, according to Ikram Chaudhry, a senior Supreme Court lawyer.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik vowed justice but tempered his comments about Shah.
"There should be no doubt that this video shows an unjust action," he said. "Action will be taken against the soldiers, but no one should forget he [the victim] is a criminal. He pointed a pistol at two women and then he tried to rob them.
"There are two things -- one, his criminal record, and another, an unjust killing," Malik said. "I assure the relatives of the victim the investigation will be transparent and neutral and the results will be made public. These are the criminals that create problems for the public, but it does not justify killing like this."
Shah's family insisted that the Rangers had killed an innocent man.
"My son was innocent," his mother said. "They killed him."
Source:
CNN, June 13, 2011
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