SHC converts life term of two cops into death sentence

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday converted life imprisonment of two former police officers of the Anti-Vehicle Lifting Cell, formerly called Anti-Car Lifting Cell (ACLC), to death sentence in a case pertaining to extrajudicial killing of traders.

Zaheer Mirza and Zahoor Khan had been sentenced to life imprisonment by an anti-terrorism court for murdering four traders hailing from Balochistan in a fake encounter on December 31, 2008, on Khalid Bin Waleed Road. Two other accused, Noor Mohammad Shah and Zafar Ali, were acquitted for want of evidence by the trial court.

The victims were identified as Haji Mohammad Tahir Achakzai, Obaidullah Khan Tareen, Mohammad Ibrahim Achakzai, and Zainuddin Khan Achakzai, who hailed from Chaman and had come from Dubai to Karachi where they were killed.

Police registered a murder case under the sections 302 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code against the ACLC team on the complaint of Haji Lala Khan, the father of one of the victims, Zainuddin, on directions of the Supreme Court that had taken suo motu notice over the killings.

The appellant’s counsel submitted to the SHC that the victims had fired on the police vehicle prompting the cops to retaliate in self-defence. They questioned testimonies of the prosecution witnesses and said that as two other co-accused had been acquitted by the trial court, the appellants may be acquitted on similar grounds.

An additional prosecutor and the complainant’s counsel supported the impugned judgment but said that the brutality of the crime justified the enhancement of sentence from life imprisonment to death sentence.

A division bench of the high court comprising Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha and Justice Khadim Hussain Tunio observed that the prosecution had proved its case beyond any reasonable doubt. The bench declared that the appellants were present at the scene and they fired at the deceased men with the intention to kill them, which amounted to premediated murder.

The SHC observed that the case justified enhancement in sentence because the appellants were not ordinary citizens but police officers upon whom higher standard of conduct was expected.

The bench observed that the appellants were entrusted by the state to uphold the law and protect the citizens from harm rather than murdering them in fake encounter.

The SHC observed that it had been found in the evidence that police had chased a car with four young men inside in the prime of their life and they subjected them to a premediated hail of gunfire and no attempt was made to arrest them. The high court observed that each of the four deceased received numerous bullet wounds on vital parts of their bodies and their vehicle had up to 20 bullets holes.

The bench observed that incident was more akin to a premediated targeted killing of innocent citizens with excessive use of force to ensure that there were no survivors. The court observed that two victims were ordered to get out of their car and then were mercilessly executed by the police whilst being unarmed and posing no threat to anyone. It observed that none of the accused had any previous criminal record and the victims were killed in most brutal and barbarous manner.

The high court observed that it was obligated in the public interest to hand down a deterrent sentence to prevent such conduct by the police in the future and give a loud and clear message to the public that when such cases are proved in court, the courts would not shy away from their responsibility of handing down deterrent sentences in order to protect the public. The court dismissed the appeals while the sentence of life imprisonment handed down to them by the trial court was increased to death sentence.