Pakistan Interior Minister Rana SanaUllah has revealed the preliminary findings of the investigation into the death of journalist Arshad Sharif in Kenya on October 23, 2022.
It was a targeted murder - Pakistani gov't rejects Kenyan police report on journalist's death
Kenyan authorities had reported Arshad Sharif's death as an unfortunate case of mistaken identity.
Deceased Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif
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Kenyan police had reported that Sharif was killed after he and his brother were mistaken for suspects, a report that Minister SanaUllah now says is inaccurate.
The Pakistani official on Tuesday stated that Arshad was targeted and murdered, adding that his two brothers - Waqar and Kurram Ahmad - will be questioned over the circumstances of his death.
The foreign government is now treating the death as an incident of murder until investigations are concluded.
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"Prima facie Arshad Sharif was murdered. It was a targeted murder and not a case of mistaken identity," SanaUllah stated.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rana SanaUllah Khan addressing a delegation during a trip to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in August 2022
Pulse Live Kenya
Waqar and Kurram own a shooting range in Magadi by the name Ammodump Kweni where Arshad was last seen alive.
Following the uproar resulting from the tragic incident, Director of the Pakistan Federal Investigation Agency Athar Waheed, Deputy Director General of the Intelligence Bureau Omar Shahid Hamid and Lieutenant Colonel Saad Ahmed were dispatched to Nairobi on October 26, 2022 to investigate Arshad's death.
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Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif
Pulse Live Kenya
SanaUllah added that the three investigators will now proceed to Dubai for further investigations. Arshad had fled for safety in Dubai before travelling to Kenya.
Questions over police report on Arshad Sharif's death
Following the first police report on how officers fatally shot Arshad along Magadi Road, it emerged that the make and number plate of the car suspected to have been involved in a kidnapping did not match the car Arshad and his brother were driving.
The security officials claimed that the white Toyota Landcruiser L200 car resembled one they were pursuing.
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It later turned out that the vehicle involved in the kidnapping was a Mercedes Benz SUV bearing a different number plate from the Toyota Landcruiser.
Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President Eric Theuri has noted that some of the information shared by the police doesn not add up.
“That (inconsistency) is feeding the conspiracy theories because of the profile of the person who was killed, considering he had escaped persecution in his country. He was said to be coming with a high-profile dossier on corruption in his country.
"There is a way in which you begin to look at all this and it is not making sense,” he said during an interview with NTV.
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