Sarfaraz Shah Case: ATC awards death sentence to shooter

The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) announced its verdict in the Sarfaraz Shah killing case Friday, Geo News reported. According to the verdict, Rangers official Shahid Zafar who shot Sarfaraz Shah was awarded the death sentence while the remaining six accused were sentenced to life in prison.

Speaking to the media after the courts verdict, the brother of Sarfaraz Shah said he was satisfied with the decision of the court and thanked the Chief Justice of Pakistan for taking notice of this case. Sarfaraz Shah’s father while speaking to Geo News, said the decision was on merit and it should be upheld by the superior courts and implemented. “God listened to our prayers, we spent the last two months crying,” he added. His mother said she was happy with the decision but complete justice would be served when the death sentence would be carried out.

Sarfaraz Shah was killed in cold blood by the Rangers personnel on June 8 after he was handed over to them by the private contractor, Afsar Khan, accusing him of committing theft and looting.

However, TV footage of the killing showed that the Rangers personnel shot the unarmed Shah twice and after injuring him seriously they watched him bleed to death instead of shifting him to hospital for medical treatment. The defendants, however, denied the prosecution charges.

The Rangers personnel and the private contractor were arrested under the anti-terrorism law as well as murder charges under the Pakistan Penal Code after the Supreme Court took suo moto notice of the brutal murder.

The case was registered against the accused by the Boat Basin police under sections 302, 34, and 36 of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The police charge-sheeted the Rangers personnel and the private contractor for deliberately murdering Shah, submitting that the accused first caused injuries to the young man with their common intention and later denied him medical treatment. Shah succumbed to his injuries due to excessive bleeding and lack of medical care, the police charged.

The prosecution had named 46 witnesses, including eyewitnesses, in the charge sheet in addition to a list of 14 articles, including the crime weapon, to prove the guilt of the accused.

The trial had to be concluded within 30 days as per the directives of the Supreme Court, which had ordered that the trial be conducted on a day-to-day basis and completed within a month.

However, owing to the lawyers’ boycott of court proceedings against the recent target killings of lawyers the hearing of the case was affected and concluded on August 9.

__________________