Extrajudicial killing: Sarfaraz’s brother wants death sentence for entire group

Lawyer argues that six other men were liable as they did not stop the shooting.

KARACHI: The brother of a young man killed by law-enforcement personnel has gone to court to ask that their life terms be enhanced to the death sentence.

The request came from Syed Salik Shah. His brother Sarfaraz was shot and injured inside a Clifton park in June by a paramilitary Rangers team.

The young man was taken to hospital but bled to death. The case hit the headlines when footage of the shooting was aired nationwide. The man who fired the shot, Shahid Zafar, and six others, Muhammad Afzal, Baha-ur-Rahman, Liaquat Ali, Muhammad Tariq, Manthar Ali and Afsar Khan were sentenced to life by an anti-terrorism court in the high-profile case.

On Monday, Salik’s lawyer Javed Ahmed Chattari argued before Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Salman Hamid that the video footage and body language of the men established that neither did they stop the man who pulled the trigger nor did they try to take Sarfaraz to hospital immediately.

As a result, Sarfaraz exsanguinated, which shows that entire incident was a case of common intention and hence section 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code could apply.

This section is about joint criminal liability. Chattari argued before the anti-terrorism appellate bench that abettors should be punished equally - the remaining six men should also get the death sentence like Shahid Zafar.

The bench heard Chattari and ordered for this matter to be fixed before the appellate bench along with the appeals filed by the convicted men.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2011.