The body of a controversial journalist, Arshad Sharif, who was shot and killed by Kenyan police while he was living there after leaving his home country is being returned to Pakistan.
According to Pakistan’s information minister Maryam Aurangzeb, a jet carrying Arshad Sharif’s remains departed Kenya on Tuesday and was scheduled to land in Pakistan later in the day.
On Sunday evening, Sharif was killed as the car he was riding in sped through a checkpoint outside Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. He was 49.
Nine bullets were fired at the car, which was also transporting Khurram Ahmed, according to AFP.
The Pakistani journalist was wounded in the head by one of the bullets. Following the car’s failure to halt, police gave chase.
According to Sharif’s family, Mr. Ahmed, who Nairobi police had initially mistakenly identified as his brother, was actually the car’s driver and not a family member.
Although it is thought that he was harmed in the shooting, neither his condition nor his location have been disclosed by Kenyan authorities.
Police apologized for the event and announced that they were looking into it.
They claimed it was a case of mistaken identity since Sharif’s license plate was similar to one on a roadblock they had set up to seek for a stolen automobile associated with a child abduction.
Sharif, 49, was a supporter of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and a vocal opponent of Pakistan’s powerful military establishment, according to AFP.
Journalists in Pakistan were shocked by the murder and requested an extensive investigation.
“I lost friend, husband and my favourite journalist today, as per police. He was shot in Kenya,” Sharif’s wife Javeria Siddique tweeted.
The US, where Sharif was apparently applying for a visa, expressed sorrow over his passing.
“We encourage a full investigation by the government of Kenya into his death,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said.
The situation was discussed with Kenyan President William Ruto on Monday by the non-relative of the journalist, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
Mr. Sharif claimed he had requested Mr. Ruto to make sure the probe was impartial and open. The president of Kenya pledged to provide all necessary support, including expediting the body’s return to Pakistan.
Senior opposition member Shahbaz Gill, who Sharif spoke with in August, advised Pakistan’s younger military personnel not to obey orders that went against “the will of the majority”
The news program was briefly taken off the air as a result of the remark, and Sharif was later given an arrest warrant before leaving the nation.
