Shershah carnage: Witnesses fail to identify accused men

Three witnesses in Shershah scrap market massacre case fail to identify accused before Judicial Magistrate.

KARACHI: The three witnesses in the Shershah scrap market massacre case failed to identify the four accused before the Judicial Magistrate (JM), West on Thursday.

The police moved an application before the JM, asking for an identification parade, which was a mandatory requirement for the nominated accused detained by the police in the scrap market killings case. Police produced three witnesses and the investigating officer presented the accused men, Nawaz, Shafi Magsi, Pervez and another. The witnesses, however, failed to identify the men. They told the JM that there was intense firing going on and everybody was trying to run away.

In the ensuing confusion, chaos and terror, it was not possible for them to see the men who were firing and killing the shopkeepers, the witnesses said. On October 19, six armed motorcyclists entered the Shershah scrap market and opened indiscriminate fire, in which at least 12 people were killed on the spot and 14 others were injured.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2011.