Karachi: Pakistani police on Saturday said they
were seeking to arrest another four paramilitary personnel
over the killing of an unarmed man in a public park that
shocked the nation.
Two soldiers from the Rangers paramilitary force,
Shahid Zafar and Mohammed Afzal, were yesterday remanded into
police custody for five days over the killing which was
captured on camera and broadcast repeatedly on television.
"We have sent a request to Rangers officials to hand
over four of the remaining soldiers seen in the video," said a
senior police investigator on condition of anonymity.
Security forces shot dead Sarfaraz Shah, 22, in
Karachi on Wednesday, accusing him of robbery, but his family
has demanded justice, insisting he was an innocent student
passing the time of day.
Widely viewed footage showed a clean-shaven man
wearing black trousers and a navy shirt crying and pleading
for his life as a soldier cocks his rifle at his neck, then
shoots him twice in the hand and thigh in a local park.
As his blood pours onto the ground, the man begs for
help from soldiers -- who appear to do nothing but watch --
until he falls unconscious.
Police said they had also taken custody of Afsar Khan,
a man in plainclothes who dragged the victim over to the
paramilitary soldiers and later filed a criminal case,
accusing Shah of robbery.
Another local police official said taking custody of
the four soldiers was essential to an investigation ordered by
the government and the Supreme Court.
A Rangers spokesman said he was unaware that police
were seeking custody of the other four soldiers who were at
the scene.
"I don`t know about it, but we`ll hand them over if
such a reqest comes our way," spokesman Bilal Farooq said.
Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry yesterday
directed the government to remove from their posts Major
General Aijaz Chaudhry, head of the paramilitary in Sindh
province, and Sindh police chief Fayyaz Leghari.
The victim`s brother Salik Shah, a local TV reporter,
said the family wanted to see everyone involved face justice.
The incident mirrored the killings last month in the
southwestern Baluchistan province of five unarmed Chechens,
one of them a pregnant woman, that are also under
investigation.
PTI
