Pakistani investigators say veteran journalist Arshad Sharif’s killing was a ‘deliberate assassination’.
The killing of a Pakistani investigative journalist in Kenya was a “deliberate assassination”, a staff of Pakistani investigators has stated in a report launched on Wednesday.
Arshad Sharif, who was crucial of Pakistan’s highly effective military, was killed when police shot at his automobile on the outskirts of the Kenyan capital Nairobi in late October. Nairobi police later expressed remorse over the incident, saying it had been a case of “mistaken identification” throughout a search for the same automobile concerned in a baby abduction case.
Sharif’s killing led to condemnations and requires an impartial probe.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif introduced an investigation and promised the federal government’s findings could be shared with the general public. The navy and Pakistani journalists additionally demanded a probe, as did Sharif’s widow, Javeria Siddique, and different members of the family.
The 49-year-old journalist was dwelling in exile after he fled the nation in August to keep away from arrest within the wake of a number of instances, together with sedition expenses, slapped towards him for making feedback on his present deemed offensive to the navy.
In the meantime, Islamabad police have charged two Pakistani businessmen dwelling in Kenya, who had hosted Sharif within the African nation, with involvement in his killing.
‘Focused assassination’
The investigators’ 592-page report, seen by The Related Press, stated the Kenyan police issued contradictory statements following the killing. As a part of the probe, two Pakistani officers had travelled to Kenya the place they met with police and Sharif’s hosts, brothers Khurram and Waqar Ahmed.
In keeping with the report, Khurram instructed the investigators he had been within the automobile with Sharif on the time of the taking pictures, travelling dwelling after dinner. They noticed the roadblock, which Khurram believed to have been arrange by robbers. As they sped by means of, he heard the deadly gunshots, he stated.
Khurram stated he then known as his brother who suggested that he maintain driving till they reached the household’s farmhouse, a number of kilometres away. As soon as on the home, the brothers discovered Sharif was already useless, Khurram was quoted as saying.
Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb, reporting from the location of the killing in Kenya’s Kajiado, stated the brothers haven't spoken to the press because the incident.
Nonetheless, their lawyer has stated they “weren't concerned and that they’re additionally fearing for his or her lives”, Webb stated.
The report shed no mild on whether or not it discovered Khurram’s account suspicious. It solely stated the Kenyan police have been apparently “used as devices” within the killing, probably with monetary or different compensation – once more, with out elaborating or providing proof to help the accusation.
The report supplied no proof for its claims and there was no rapid remark from Kenya.
“This was a deliberate, focused assassination … relatively than a case of mistaken identification” because the Kenyan police claimed, the report stated. It shunned blaming anybody particularly, saying solely that people in Kenya, Dubai or Pakistan might have had a job within the slaying.
Sharif had stayed within the United Arab Emirates after leaving Pakistan in August and earlier than travelling on to Kenya.
The report additional steered the bullet that fatally wounded Sharif was fired from both contained in the automobile or from shut vary. It once more didn't elaborate.
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