Karachi: Pakistan's police presented chargesheets against six members of a paramilitary force on Friday for the killing of an unarmed man last week, a government lawyer said, in a rare rebuke to the country's powerful military.
The incident in the southern city of Karachi was caught on videotape and broadcast on television channels nationwide, fueling anger against the security forces already under pressure since Osama bin Laden's killing last month in a US raid.
"The police have submitted their investigation report to me, which will now be scrutinised and submitted to the court, after which the trial will be held in an anti-terrorism court," state lawyer Arshad Iqbal Cheema told Reuters.
He said the soldiers, who had been in police custody, were sent to prison.
The footage showed the soldiers from the Rangers force opening fire at close range at the man identified as Sarfaraz Shah in a public park in Karachi.
A civilian, who has also been charged, is seen grabbing the victim by the hair and dragging him over to a group of Rangers. He pleads for mercy, then one of the soldiers shoots him twice.
The victim falls to the ground and screams in pain. The soldiers stand beside him.
He collapses in a pool of blood beside a park named after late Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was seen around the world as a symbol of democracy.
All seven men committed murder and an act of terrorism, the police charge sheet said, according to a police official.
The shooting triggered fresh criticism of Pakistan's human rights record and an unpopular government many say has failed to rein in the police and army, who are often seen as untouchable.
The Supreme Court took up the incident on its own authority and ordered the removal of the police chief of Sindh province, where Karachi is the capital.
In an unusual move by civilian authorities against the military, the highest court also ordered the transfer of the director general of the Rangers in Sindh, a serving two-star army general.
It also appointed a senior Karachi police officer, who submitted the charge sheet on Friday, to investigate the killing.
The accused Rangers, along with the civilian, will be tried in a civilian court. Such cases are usually taken up by the military.
The jailing of the seven men came as journalists and human rights activists stepped up their demands for a full enquiry into the killing of journalist Saleem Shahzad in late May.
Shahzad, who reported on Islamist militants, was kidnapped in Islamabad and beaten to death.
He had earlier spoken of being threatened by the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, raising suspicions the ISI was behind his death. The ISI denied the allegations.
Human rights activists on Friday appealed to the Supreme Court to intervene to ensure that an independent enquiry was held into his death.
Pakistanis traditionally have been wary of criticising the army and its powerful intelligence service.
The Pakistan Army and the ISI, however, have faced unprecedented criticism since US forces found and killed bin Laden in a unilateral raid on the Pakistani town of Abbottabad on May 2.
That was followed by a string of security and intelligence lapses, including a militant raid on a naval base in Karachi.
Comments
0 comment