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KARACHI: Scores of people from Lyari staged a sit-in outside the temporary headquarters of Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, on Dr Ziauddin Ahmed Road on Saturday in protest against the killing of an unarmed youth by the paramilitary troops on June 8.
The protest was held for a third consecutive day.
The protesters marched on I.I. Chundrigar Road, from where they headed to the Rangers headquarters. The Rangers and police took stringent security measures, which led to traffic jams on adjoining arteries.
The protesters alleged that the Rangers had killed two residents of Lyari — Shariful Haq and Baba Ismail — in a staged encounter during a search operation last month.
They called upon the authorities to launch a probe into the last month killings in their area.
Various non-governmental and civil society organisations as well as mediamen staged protest demonstrations outside the Karachi Press Club on Saturday, demanding withdrawal of the Rangers from the city and educational institutions, including the universities.
The protesters were of the view that the law-enforcers had become murderers instead of citizens’ protectors and the government was delaying justice in the Sarfaraz Shah killing case.
Chanting slogans against the Rangers, a number of youths belonging to the Progressive Youth Front referred to the earlier killings of innocent youths in Sanghar, Lyari and Golimar and observed that they would not accept “state terrorism”.
The protesters called upon the government to hold the men in uniform responsible for the death of the youth and to immediately remove the Rangers director-general.NGO Pasban also took out a rally and held that law-enforcers insensitive to human rights deserved all condemnation.
The participants of the rally brought with them an effigy of personnel in uniform. They symbolically beat up the effigy and later hanged it to express solidarity with the victim and vent their anger on the Rangers.
The Karachi Union of Journalists (Dastoor) also organised a demonstration outside the KPC and noted that it was shameful that the law-enforcers were failing to protect the life of innocent citizens.
