The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) firmly believes slain Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif was killed in an orchestrated ‘killing’ which Kenya police were party to.
“We believe that Kenya police were involved in the targeted killing of Arshad Sharif,” FIA top boss Mohsin Hassan told Geo. The FIA DG also confirmed how Pakistan had wanted to interview four Kenyan policemen but only three had been produced.
“Our team wanted to interview all four shooters. Only three were produced.” The fourth was said to be unavailable due to injury. “Kenya police said he was the one injured after being fired on from the vehicle carrying Arshad Sharif,” the FIA DG told journalist Murtaza Ali Shah.
The FIA top boss also shared how Omar Shahid Hamid and Ather Waheed, Pakistani officials probing the assassination had inspected Sharif’s vehicle only to find no trace of fire from the Land Cruiser. Butt also cited how it was binding on Kenya police to cooperate with Pakistan in line with international law.
Sharif, a popular journalist, was killed in Kenya on October 23. Local police billed Arshad’s killing a case of ‘mistaken identity’ while social media was rife with accusations. His wife Javeria, separately, reiterated calls for the family’s right to privacy be respected. Kenya media, separately, has not been buying the police version (of events). Kenya police, while earlier claiming the journalist was attacked after the vehicle he was travelling in failed to stop at a picket on Tuesday tweaked the version presented earlier. The force, in its latest stance, said Arshad had been killed in an exchange of fire.__The Friday Times