Rangers killing: ATC indicts 6 Rangers over Sarfaraz Shah murder

ATC formally charges six Rangers officials with murder for the killing of Sarfaraz Shah.

KARACHI: An Anti-terrorism Court (ATC) hearing the Rangers killing case on Wednesday charged six members of the paramilitary force with murder for the killing of Sarfaraz Shah, the unarmed youth who was shot in Karachi last month.

The hearing was presided over by Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso in ATC-I. The judge read out the accusations levelled against the Rangers in the court.

He said that Shahid Zafar was the Rangers official who shot and injured Shah, after which the youth bled to death. The other Rangers officials who were present at the time of the incident were also present in court.

"The court has formally framed charges of murder and terrorism against all the accused," public prosecutor Mohammad Khan Buriro told reporters.

Absar, the man who took Shah to the Rangers in the park where the incident took place, was also at the hearing.

The judge asked the six Rangers officials and Afsar whether they accepted the charges levelled against them.

The men denied the charges, and claimed that the incident was not a murder.

The judge thereby issued notices to all the witnesses to record their statements in court tomorrow.

The Rangers lawyers vowed that they would soon prove that the security officials are innocent.

19-year-old Sarfaraz Shah was shot in the Benazir Bhutto Shaheed Park on June 8. The incident was caught on videotape and broadcast on television channels nationwide.