A model criminal court in Karachi on Friday handed a death sentence to a Shaheen Force police officer over a staged encounter in Gulistan-i-Jauhar that left a young man dead in December 2022. Two other officers received life imprisonment in the same case.
The court ruled that Shahryar had shot dead 26-year-old Amir Husain. His co-accused, Nasir and Faisal, were given life terms for their part in the incident. All three convicts were also ordered to pay Rs500,000 each to the victim’s family as compensation.
Prosecution sets out the events of December 27
According to the prosecution, Shaheen Force personnel signalled Amir to halt near Aladdin Park during a snap-check on December 27, 2022. When he did not stop, the policemen followed him into a residential apartment complex in Gulistan-i-Jauhar. They opened fire on him inside the building, and he died at the scene, while the officers were not hurt.
According to the FIR, Amir was riding a motorcycle to buy medicine for his father, who had been left paralysed, when police signalled him. He did not stop, rode into Noman Avenue, and was walking toward his parents’ house when the officers fired. A young girl was with him at the time.
Three police personnel were arrested after the shooting and booked under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which covers premeditated murder. A separate FIR, lodged at the Sharae Faisal police station on the complaint of the victim’s mother, included terrorism-related charges.
Family and eyewitness challenge the police version
The victim’s family maintains that Amir was deliberately targeted and killed by the police. His mother told the media that he worked with his brother at the Karachi Fisheries. “Would anyone go out to commit a robbery while accompanying a little child?” she asked.
An eyewitness claimed that four police personnel shot Amir on the stairs of the residential building, in front of people present at the scene. The witness questioned how a man accompanied by a young child could be involved in a robbery. Police had initially portrayed the deceased as a criminal.
Jamaat-i-Islami chief demands strict action
The funeral prayer for Amir was led by Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, chief of Jamaat-i-Islami Karachi. Speaking to the media after the funeral, the JI leader demanded strict action against the police personnel involved in the killing.
