KARACHI, June 28: The hearing of a cold-blooded murder case against six personnel of Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, and a civilian was put off on Tuesday to Wednesday as the judge of the trial court was on leave.

The matter was fixed for Tuesday for indictment of the suspects, but the judge of anti-terrorism court-I, Bashir Ahmed Khoso, who is conducting the trial, was on sick leave.

On the last hearing, the court had appointed a lawyer on state expense to represent Liaquat Ali, Mohammad Tariq, Shahid Zafar and Afzal Khan since they had twice failed to hire counsel for their defence. However, they arranged private counsel and their lawyers filed powers of attorney (vakalatnamas) on Tuesday. The other suspects have already engaged lawyers to plead their cases.

Sub-Inspector Bahaur Rehman, Lance Naik Liaquat Ali, constables Mohammad Tariq, Manthar Ali, Shahid Zafar, Afzal Khan and a private contractor, Afsar Khan, have been allegedly involved in the murder of a young man, Sarfraz Shah, who was shot at and left to die inside the Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Park within the remit of the Boat Basin police station on June 8.

A case (FIR 227/11) was registered 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 of the Anti-Terrorism Act on the compliant of deceased's brother.