Islamabad (HRNW) Senior journalist and anchorperson Arshad Sharif was deliberately killed and his attackers knew full well who he was before pulling the trigger.
This has been determined by the fact-finding committee formed by the government on Arshad Sharif’s murder in Kenya on October 23.
The fact-finding committee, which comprised investigators from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) , had traveled to Kenya and Dubai in search of answers relating to Arshad Sharif’s movements, the people he interacted and why did he take the decisions he took.
Towards the end of their mission, they prepared a report which was then submitted to the Federal Interior Ministry for onward processing.
In their report, the investigators dismissed the view that Arshad Sharif was killed due to mistaken identity as a kidnapper who was fleeing from a police picket near rural Nairobi in Kenya.
Instead, they said that his murder had been ‘planned’.
The committee further said that they could not find any evidence to establish the theory that he had been killed as a result of ‘mistaken identity’.
The report stated that Arshad Sharif in the weeks prior to his murder and after leaving Pakistan, he had been in contact with more than a dozen people spread across Pakistan, Dubai and Kenya.
The report added that two suspects, Khurram and Waqar, were said to be friends of the slain journalist and were among the last people he was close to before his murder. The report called for further investigating these two suspects ‘thoroughly’, adding that they were reluctant to provide evidence about the high profile murder.
The report also included a statement from Dubai Visa Officer Arsalan Dasti.