KARACHI:
An Awaz Television journalist who was part of the team that captured the shooting of Sarfraz Shah on tape, joined the list of prosecution witnesses who have been quizzed on why they did not help the bleeding man.
On Saturday, it was the turn of Awaz TV show host Zahid Essa Khokhar to be cross examined at Anti-Terrorism Court I in front of Judge Bashir Ahmed Khoso. When asked by a defence lawyer why he failed to help the injured boy or at least offer him some water, Khokhar said that he was fearing for his own life and so he kept away.
On June 8 Khokhar was at Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park to record a programme with Sindh minister Shazia Marri but she was unable to come and thus he lined up another MPA. He said that he and his camera team were deciding on a location when at around 5:15 pm he saw a man with what looked like a pistol hitting a young man.
He said that he saw five or six personnel of the Pakistan Rangers rushing in. The man in white clothes kicked the young man towards the Rangers who encircled him and pointed their big guns towards him. I asked my cameraman Abdul Salam to record each and every thing that happened, he told the court. “I heard the Rangers asking each other to fire at the boy. One of the Rangers personnel patted the other’s shoulder and asked why he was not firing at the boy. I then heard gun shots and was terrified.”
He said that after the shots were fired, people there left and his team recorded the programme an hour later. They went back to their office and at 9:30 pm aired the video. Khokhar works as the bureau chief in Islamabad and also hosted a programme Walk ‘n Talk in which he goes to different cities to record programmes.
During cross examination by the defence counsel, Khokhar said that he had not heard any talking between the deceased and the accused Afsar Khan (the man in white clothes). He denied the suggestion that he heard that the pistol was fake and a toy.
To a question by a defence counsel, he said that, “The Rangers act was an act of terrorism”.
Khokhar and his team and particularly the cameraman who did the recording, are still getting threats. They have brought this up with the Supreme Court, the Senate and the National Assembly.
On Saturday, the court also granted an application moved by defence lawyer MR Syed to re-call three prosecution witneses, medico-legal officer Dr Ayaz Memon, parks official Abdul Rasheed and SI Nasir-ul Hassan.
The court issued notices in two identical applications moved by two other defence lawyers, Naimat Ali Randhawa and Shaukat Hayat, and put of proceedings till Monday.
At the fag end off the proceedings, the IO informed the court that security has been provided to eyewitness Abdul Salam, a cameraman of Awaz Television channel.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 17th, 2011.
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in short..good riddance from a mobile snatcher!!