KARACHI, June 23: An anti-terrorism court on Thursday deferred till Friday the indictment of six personnel of Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, and a civilian in the murder case of an unarmed youth as most of the suspects failed to engage counsel for their defence.

The young man, Sarfraz Shah, was shot at point-blank range and then left to die allegedly by the Rangers personnel inside the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park within the remit of the Boat Basin police station on June 8.

Sub-Inspector Bahaur Rehman, Lance Naik Liaquat Ali, constables Mohammad Tariq, Manthar Ali, Shahid Zafar, Afzal Khan and private contractor Afsar Khan were brought from the Central Prison on Thursday morning and produced in the Anti-Terrorism Court-I.

The judge of the ATC-I, Bashir Ahmed Khoso, postponed the indictment of the suspects till Friday as five of them had been unable to engage defence lawyers.

The court gave a last opportunity to Liaquat Ali, Mohammad Tariq, Manthar Ali, Shahid Zafar and Afzal Khan to engage lawyers till Friday and if they failed, the court said, lawyers would be provided to them at the state expense.

The suspects were booked under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 36 (effect caused partly by act and partly by omission) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.