World News | Pakistani interior minister says journalist Arshad Sharif was ‘murdered’ in Kenya

ISLAMABAD, Nov. 8 (PTI) Pakistan’s Home Minister Rana Sanaullah said on Tuesday that preliminary investigations revealed that journalist Arshad Sharif was “murdered” in Kenya, which was not a mistake of identity as claimed by local police.

Sharif, 49, a former ARY TV reporter and TV anchor known for his close ties to former Prime Minister Imran Khan, fled to Kenya after being accused of sedition and peddling “anti-national” rhetoric from Pakistan’s security services agency earlier this year.

Also read | Who is Muhammad Oz? Learn all about Pennsylvania’s Republican candidate for the 2022 U.S. Senate election, who could become the first Muslim senator.

He was shot dead at a police checkpoint an hour’s drive from Nairobi on October 23, sparking a storm in the country. Kenyan police later said it was a case of “identifying the wrong person” while searching for a similar car involved in a child kidnapping case.

Sanura said a two-person team sent by Pakistan to Nairobi returned to brief him on the initial findings. The team investigating the murder consisted of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FIA) Director Athar Wahid and IB’s Omar Shahid Hamid.

Also read | Imran Khan assassination attempt: Pakistan’s Punjab police finally register FIR.

“Preliminary evidence shows that Arshad Sharif was murdered. It was a targeted murder, not a mistake of identity,” he said, rejecting the Kenyan police’s account of the incident.

He said: “If this is a murder case, which appears to be prima facie evidence, then the two Kenyan brothers – Wakar Ahmed and Kurram Ahmed – are not excluded. “

Two brothers of Pakistani descent who live in Kenya have hosted Sharif there.

The minister also said that the investigation is still not complete and the team will travel to Dubai to conduct further investigations.

He said the government had written to the chief justice of the Supreme Court to set up an independent commission to investigate Sharif’s killing.

“It’s now up to the chief justice to nominate someone to lead such a committee,” he said.

The minister wants to be able to identify the culprits involved in the murder.

He also said he had heard that the Nairobi police could do illegal things.

Sanura said the police were reluctant to reveal every detail and did not hand over some of the items requested by the Pakistani team.

“The prime minister will discuss this with the Kenyan president,” he said.

Sharif left Pakistan in August, first to Dubai and then to Kenya. His killing prompted questions from former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who claimed he was murdered.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)