Karachi court sentences police officer to death in fake encounter case
A Karachi model criminal court sentenced Shaheen Force officer Shahryar to death for killing 26-year-old Amir Husain in a staged encounter in December 2022. Two co-accused police officials, Nasir and Faisal, were given life imprisonment.
- Officer Shahryar sentenced to death over the December 2022 killing of Amir Husain, 26.
- Co-accused Nasir and Faisal given life imprisonment.
- Each of the three convicts must pay Rs500,000 to the victim's family.
A model criminal court in Karachi on Friday sentenced a Shaheen Force police officer, Shahryar, to death for killing a citizen in a staged police encounter in Gulistan-i-Jauhar in December 2022. The court found him guilty of shooting 26-year-old Amir Husain dead.
Two co-accused police officials, Nasir and Faisal, were sentenced to life imprisonment. The court also directed all three convicts to pay Rs500,000 each as compensation to the victim's family.
According to the prosecution, the incident took place on December 27, 2022. Shaheen Force personnel signalled Amir to stop near Aladdin Park during snap-checking. When he did not stop, the policemen chased him into a residential apartment complex in Gulistan-i-Jauhar.
The prosecution said police entered the building and opened fire on Amir inside the residential premises, killing him at the scene. The officers were not injured. Police had initially described the incident as a police encounter.
According to the FIR, Amir was riding a motorcycle to buy medicines for his father, who had suffered paralysis. He was accompanied by a young girl at the time. Amir worked with his brother at the Karachi Fisheries, according to his mother.
Three police personnel were arrested after the shooting, and a case under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code was registered against them. Another FIR was lodged at Sharae Faisal police station under terrorism-related charges on the complaint of the victim's mother.
The victim's family maintains that Amir was deliberately targeted and killed by police. His mother said: "Would anyone go out to commit a robbery while accompanying a little child?"
Why it matters
The ruling is a rare conviction of police over an extrajudicial killing, relevant to public trust in law enforcement in Pakistan.
