Extrajudicial killing: As police wrap up work, DIG asks for 1 day to submit report

Supreme Court had ordered investigations to be completed in seven days from Jun 10.

KARACHI:

The police have managed to meet the Supreme Court’s seven-day deadline to wrap up their investigations into the extrajudicial killing case involving six paramilitary Rangers men. But the investigating officer asked for one more day to submit his report.

The six Rangers personnel and a civilian are accused of killing 19-year-old Sarfaraz Shah at Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park off Boat Basin. The Supreme Court took notice and Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Khwaja Sultan was tasked with the investigation. He was told to submit a challan in court and the case would have to be completed in 30 days.

On Friday, DIG Khawaja appeared before the court along with the accused men in custody. He told the administrative judge that he has wrapped up investigations and the police do not need to keep them in physical custody any more. He requested the court to send them in to judicial custody.

He did, however, ask for another day to submit a report on the investigations, as was ordered by the Supreme Court. He is likely to submit it by Saturday.

The case against the accused men has been registered under Section 302/34 (for murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act. If convicted, the men could face the death sentence. The victim had two entry wounds and seven exit wounds, the medical report said as Sarfaraz was shot from a close range by a G-3 rifle.

Special Public Prosecutor Arshad Iqbal Cheema, who is leading the prosecution, told the media that the police have given him their final charge sheet and after he scrutinises it, he will submit it before the administrative judge in a day or two.

Under the law, the prosecutor has three days to go over the documents of a case, including the charge sheet, Cheema said. Usually, as soon as a charge sheet is given to a prosecutor, he submits it to the court and the trial can begin. When the media asked Cheema why he needed the extra time, he said, “Because this is a sensitive case, I do not want to overlook any detail.”

After the charge sheet is submitted, the administrative judge will entrust the trial to any of the three Anti-Terrorism Courts in Karachi.

The Express Tribune learnt that the Rangers have provided an escort vehicle to the administrative judge from Friday afternoon. The AJ had earlier refused the escort.

The Rangers

The killing highlights the reputation for brutality of Pakistani security forces in a violent city where murders are commonplace. Answerable to the interior ministry, more than 10,000 paramilitary troops patrol the financial capital and its surroundings to combat ethnic, political and Islamist violence. But the violence has only got worse.

By any measure, the killing of Shah, accused by a civilian of committing robbery, was horrific, all the more so for being captured live on camera and broadcast around the clock on national television.

In the footage, a clean-shaven man pleads for his life before being shot twice in the hand and thigh. As the blood poured out of his wounds, the soldiers appear to do nothing but watch as Shah falls unconscious.

“This is completely against humanity. What the Rangers did is unacceptable because by this way they can even kill small children in streets and say that they were dacoits,” said cab driver Ameer Khan, using an Anglo-Indian colloquialism which refers to members of armed gangs.

Human rights activists say units such as the Rangers, originally established for combat and border duty, are neither equipped nor trained for civilian areas. “The paramilitaries consider themselves accountable only to the army and that civilians are inferior. Therein lies the problem,” said Zohra Yusuf, chairman of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP). “As their stay in the city gets longer, the situation worsens,” she added. “Paramilitaries are appointed to cities having had just basic combat training. They should be sensitised with specialised human rights courses to help them adjust.”

According to the HRCP, 748 people were killed in targeted shootings in Karachi last year, compared to 272 in 2009. A fresh bout of assassinations blamed on political tensions has left 30 people dead since Monday, according to officials.

Shrines have been attacked, a police headquarters bombed. In the last two months, a Saudi diplomat was shot dead, the Saudi consulate targeted by grenades and the naval base held up.

Yet in the vast city, a magnet for economic migrants where the government says the population increases by 500,000 each year, 28,000 police are simply incapable of enforcing law and order.

“The paramilitary forces were meant to assist the civilian administration for a shorter and specific time, but here they have been engaged for two decades,” said local government adviser Kaiser Bengali. According to government figures, Pakistan has 350,000 policemen — one for every 500 people — with significant numbers diverted to secure government officials, politicians and top civil servants. “Our province doesn’t have enough money to spend on capacity-building the police and we have no such programme,” said Bengali.

Sharfuddin Memon, an expert on policing in the provincial government, said there was a serious trust deficit between the law enforcement agencies and the people, and called for accountability through public safety commissions.

“We shouldn’t blame the institution,” Sharjeel Memon, Sindh’s information minister, told AFP. “The Rangers have made a spectacular contribution to maintaining law and order,” he said.

with additional input by afp

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2011.