The police officers, allegedly behind the killing of senior journalist Arshad Sharif, have surrendered their weapons, while one cop has claimed that the car in which the anchorperson was travelling fired upon them first, reported Kenyan media on Wednesday.
As per the Kenyan publication, The Star, law enforcement personnel are trying to determine if any other shooter was involved in the incident and the injury of one of the officers involved in the shootout.
The Star reported that the Kenyan police are expected to question the owners of the Ammodump Kwenia Shooting Range, where Sharif was before he was killed.
The publication reported that the shooting range calls itself a major recce site for security personnel looking to hone their shooting skills.
“We specialise in Defence and Security equipment. Ammodump was formed in 2015 by a group of like-minded individuals who sought to combine best-in-class brands, assets and people within the complex risk management industry,” said the publication about the range.
The publication also reported that Sharif’s driver, Khurram Ahmed, is the brother of the owner of the range, Waqar Ahmed.
Khurram had called Waqar after the shooting and informed him of the incident. It was then that Waqar instructed his brother to drive Sharif to a shopping centre for first aid.
The driver is being considered among persons of interest in the probe. The publication had tried reaching out to him but was unsuccessful.
Corporal claims Sharif’s car fired first
The publication stated that Corporal Kelvin Mutuku, one of the officers involved in the shooting, was admitted to a hospital with a bullet injury on his left palm.
The publication shared that the corporal said that he and his colleagues were fired upon before the car carrying Sharif approached the roadblock they had established.
The Star reported the officers, who are trainers at the local police training camp, claimed that they were positioned in one area at the time of the incident and it is unlikely the bullet was friendly fire.
The first shot is being claimed as the reason for the subsequent shooting at Sharif’s car
The publication said that Corporal Mutuku told the police that they drove from the training camp to the site of the shooting after they received information that a car that was missing was sighted in the Kiserian area of Kenya.
The cops then formed a roadblock using stones, parked their car a few metres away with the lights on, and waited for the car to arrive. The officer said that a caller provided them with information that a car was racing towards them.
The officer claimed that a few minutes after that call, the car with Sharif along with his driver, drove past the roadblock despite seeing the police car’s lights on. He claimed that they tried to stop the car but were shot at first, prompting the fatal shooting.
The publication stated that the officer told the police that Sharif’s driver, Khurram, drove a few kilometres ahead and stopped the car at his brother’s home after realising Sharif had died of bleeding.
It was then that police arrived at the scene and interrogated him before moving the body to the mortuary.
The officers searched the car but did not find any weapon or suspicious substance.
Meanwhile, the Kenyan Police’s Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) which has taken over the case will take the weapons, taken from the officers, for ballistic tests to establish which one was used. They will also look if a different bullet had hit corporal Mutuku.
Sharif’s body arrives in Pakistan
The journalist’s body was brought to Islamabad in the early hours of Wednesday and was received by Members of his family at the capital’s airport.
The family has announced that they will be conducting a post-mortem of the slain journalist in Pakistan as well.
The police have already submitted a request to the PIMS Hospital for a post-mortem.
On the other hand, the family have also announced that his funeral prayers will be offered at the Shah Faisal Mosque Islamabad at 2pm on Thursday. Later, he will be laid to rest at the H-11 cemetery in the federal capital.
Govt forms team to probe Arshad Sharif’s killing
The government has reconstituted a team formed to look “ascertain the facts” into the journalist’s death.
The government had initially formed a three-member team with Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) officers. But now it has become a two-member team.
The team includes FIA Director Athar Waheed and IB’s Deputy Director General Omar Shahid Hamid.
According to the notification issued by the interior ministry, the investigation team will immediately leave for Kenya and submit its report to the ministry.
Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, while confirming the formation of the team, shared that the team will examine the reasons and motives behind Sharif’s departure from Pakistan to Dubai and from Dubai to Kenya.
“Investigative team will submit the final report to the Ministry of Interior,” said Sanaullah.
سینئر صحافی ارشد شریف کے کینیا میں قتل سے متعلق حقائق جاننے کیلئے FIA اور انٹیلی ایجنسیز کے اعلیٰ افسران پر مشتمل تین رکنی تحقیقاتی ٹیم تشکیل دے دی ہے۔ تحقیقاتی ٹیم فوری طور پر کینیا روانہ ہوگی اور ارشد شریف قتل کیس کی تحقیقات کرے گی اور حتمی رپورٹ وزارتِ داخلہ کو پیش کریگی۔
— Rana SanaUllah Khan (@RanaSanaullahPK) October 26, 2022
Apart from the two-member team, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has also announced that a judicial commission headed by a high court judge will conduct a probe into Sharif’s killing.
I have decided to form a Judicial Commission to hold an inquiry into the killing of journalist Arshad Sharif in order to determine the facts of the tragic incident in a transparent & conclusive manner.
— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) October 25, 2022
On the other hand, Director General (DG) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lieutenant General Babar Iftikhar said that the military has also asked the government to carry out a high-level investigation into the tragic killing.
Arshad Sharif shot dead in ‘mistaken identity case
The senior journalist and anchorperson were shot dead by the Kenyan police Sunday night in a “mistaken identity” case while he was travelling to Nairobi from the country’s Magadi town.
In this regard, the Chairperson of the Independent Policing Oversight Authority, Kenya, Anne Makori held a press conference on Monday and confirmed that on the evening of October 23, a Pakistani journalist, named Arshad Muhammad Sharif, 50, was shot by the Kenyan police within the limits of Kajiado County.
“There’s an alleged police killing of a Pakistani national at Tinga market, Kajiado county, last evening. Our rapid response team has already been dispatched,” she said, adding that a probe related to the incident is underway and that the Independent Policing Oversight Authority will carry out a transparent investigation into the killing of Sharif.