2 Pakistani Security Officials Removed After Videotaped Killing

Posted June 14th, 2011 at 6:50 pm (UTC-5)
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Pakistan's military said Tuesday it had removed two senior officials in Sindh province in response to the videotaped killing of an unarmed man in the southern port city of Karachi on June 8.

The military said the head of the paramilitary Rangers force Major General Ijaz Chaudhary and Sindh police chief Fayyaz Leghari have been removed in compliance with a Supreme Court order.

The video, originally aired uncut on Pakistani television, shows 22-year-old Sarfaraz Shah pleading for his life before being shot by paramilitary soldiers. Shah died during treatment at a Karachi hospital.

The Rangers say the man was armed and trying to rob someone when he was detained.

But the brutal nature of the video disturbed many in Pakistan and called into question the actions of the paramilitary force.

Six members of the paramilitary forces have also been turned over to police.

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari has called for an investigation into the matter.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan condemned the killing, calling it “yet another indication of law enforcement personnel becoming increasingly trigger-happy .” The rights group said such incidents were becoming more and more common in Pakistan.

There is another video circulating in Pakistan, showing the shooting death of five Russian nationals near the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province, Quetta. Security forces claim they were suicide bombers, but there is no evidence that the five were armed.

The incidents came at a time when Pakistan's military is already under scrutiny following the U.S. special forces raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden at his compound in the northern garrison city of Abbottabad.

Human rights groups have long accused Pakistani security forces of carrying out extrajudicial killings.