Sarfraz Shah, 18, was shot on June 8 after being detained by a group of Pakistani Rangers. A local TV journalist caught the incident on tape. The footage drew public fury, and the suspects in the case were quickly arrested and put on trial.
In a brief session at the antiterror court that heard the case, Judge Bashir Khoso told the seven men they were guilty of murder and read the verdicts.
Salik Shah, the victim’s eldest brother, burst into tears after hearing the verdict.
At the time, officials said Sarfraz Shah was picked up on suspicion of robbery.
The video footage shows him unarmed and surrounded by the Rangers. At one point, he moved toward one of them with his arms outstretched, but he was pushed back, then shot twice in the hand and leg. While on the ground, he begged the Rangers to take him to a hospital, but they stood by as he writhed in an expanding pool of blood.
Shah was eventually taken to a local hospital and died shortly thereafter from blood loss.
Pakistani security forces are often accused of using excessive force and killing unarmed civilians. The criminal justice system in Pakistan is inefficient and conviction rates are very low, so officers sometimes kill suspects rather than hold them for prosecution , human rights activists said.
Human Rights Watch welcomed the verdicts.
“One hopes that the verdict will go some way in arresting the impunity with which Pakistan’s trigger-happy security and paramilitary agencies perpetrate abuses,’’ said Ali Dayan Hasan, the group’s Pakistan director.
