The killing of a Pakistani journalist in Kenya is a “premeditated murder”. Pakistan

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A team set up by the Pakistani government to investigate the killing of a well-known Pakistani journalist in Nairobi said it found many inconsistencies in the account given by the Kenyan authorities, and believes it was a case of premeditated murder.

TV journalist Arshad Sharif, who fled Pakistan due to threats to his life, was shot dead in Nairobi in October. Kenyan officials said the case involved mistaken identification and that police car thieves who were searching for cars fired at his car as it drove through a roadblock without stopping.

A two-member fact-finding team from Pakistan that traveled to Kenya and conducted a number of interviews, examined and reconstructed the crime scene and examined the deceased’s phones and computers, said in a 600-page report that Sharif’s murder was pre-planned. killing.

“Both members [fact-finding team] They have a considered understanding that it is a case of planned targeted assassination with transnational characters and not a case of mistaken identity,” said the report, copies of which have been submitted to the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

It added, “The shooting was likely to have been conducted, having properly aimed at a parked vehicle.”

Kenyan authorities refused to comment on the details of the report.

“The investigation into the matter is still ongoing, so there is not much I can say,” said Resila Onyango, a spokeswoman for the Kenya National Police Service.

He said a multi-agency team was conducting the investigation, and would notify authorities when it was completed.

Anne McCurry, chair of the independent Kenya Police Oversight Authority, told Reuters that investigations were ongoing.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Rana Sanalla, had said before the report was published that Sharif’s body had bruises and signs of torture, indicating that it was a targeted killing.

The fact-finding team highlighted one wound in particular on Sharif’s back, saying it appeared to have been inflicted at relatively close range. The report noted that there was no penetration mark similar to a gunshot in the seat Sharif was sitting in at the time of the alleged shooting, calling it a “ballistic impossibility”.

The report said, “The injury must have occurred either before the journalist entered the vehicle, or the shot was fired from a relatively close range, possibly from inside the vehicle, almost certainly not a moving vehicle.”

Sharif had fled Pakistan, citing threats to his life, after the government registered several treason cases against him.

One case arose from the reporting of Sharif’s act which led to the accusation that he had spread a call from an official of a former government, led by Imran Khan, to members of the armed forces mutiny. Sharif and the official denied inciting the mutiny.

Khan said Sharif was killed because of his journalistic work. He and his successor as prime minister, Shahbaz Sharif, called for a judicial investigation.

The fact-finding team’s report also noted clear discrepancies between autopsy reports in Kenya and Pakistan. The person in Pakistan identified 12 injuries on Sharif’s body, while the Kenyan report identified only two injuries related to gunshot wounds.

The fact-finding team’s report said doctors believed the injuries could have been the result of torture or a struggle, but this could not be proven until verified by the doctor who performed the autopsy in Kenya.

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