Nairobi, Kenya
CNN
—
Questions soon began to swirl when a prominent Pakistani investigative journalist was shot dead by Kenyan police on a dirt road outside Nairobi.
how did he get there? Why did the police shoot his car? or was there a relationship?
It’s been a month since Arshad Sharif was murdered, but Kenyan and Pakistani authorities have not filed a report and no arrests have been made in the case.
Conflicting accounts provided by Kenyan police and Pakistani authorities offer no further clarity. They said they were then shot from the journalist’s car. Pakistan’s interior minister has cast doubt on the police report, claiming it was a “targeted murder” earlier this month, adding that more evidence is needed “to confirm all this”. rice field.
Pakistani media broadcast various ludicrous theories about the night Sharif died. Some reports claim the journalist was tortured for hours before being shot and had broken fingers, broken ribs, missing nails and other marks of torture.
However, post-mortem reports from separate autopsies conducted in Kenya and Pakistan, obtained by CNN, concluded that Sharif died of multiple injuries after gunshots to the head and chest. , did not document evidence of torture.
Pakistani media claim his nails were removed through torture, but it’s standard practice in Kenya to remove the nails during a DNA autopsy, said an independent pathologist in Nairobi, both reports. Dr. Ahmed Kalebi, who reviewed it, told CNN.
Conflicting stories have sowed seeds of doubt and frustration in Sharif’s family, who are skeptical that answers to the mystery of his death will ever be found.
“I don’t trust the Pakistani government,” his mother, Riffat Ara Alvi, told CNN in a video interview.
She wrote to the chief justice of Pakistan’s Supreme Court earlier this month, saying she had asked the Supreme Court to set up a judicial commission to “identify the true motives of this heinous crime and identify the perpetrators.” .
“It is impossible to achieve justice in Pakistan and Kenya. told CNN.
CNN has reached out to the Pakistan High Commission in Nairobi for comment on the matter.
In his home country, Sharif was a critic of the Pakistani military and an ally of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was ousted in April after a no-confidence vote in parliament. , brought him many enemies, and his family and friends say he fled the country, leaving journalists terrified into his life.
He has also been charged with sedition for criticizing state institutions and “facilitating an insurrection” within the military.Former Prime Minister Khan has described Sharif, 49, as “one of Pakistan’s best investigative journalists”. He told CNN on November 7 that Sharif had uncovered a conspiracy against him, but gave no further details.
“This man was exposing all this conspiracy against me. He was kicked out of Pakistan,” Khan claimed.
Khan was shot at a political rally earlier this month, and his party called the attack an attempted assassination by the ruling class, which the government and security officials vehemently deny.
According to letters obtained by CNN, Sharif left Pakistan a month after writing letters to Pakistan’s Supreme Court and the President informing him of threats to his and other journalists’ lives. “Pakistan journalists face charges of sedition and terrorism for suppressing dissent and criticism of powerful elements of the state. It seems,” he wrote.
He initially went to Dubai, but was forced to flee again due to “harassment by Pakistani authorities”.
Pakistani investigators traveled to Dubai during the week of November 14 to investigate Sharif’s stay, according to sources familiar with the investigation. The team questioned Sharif’s contacts and hosts there, as well as the owner of ARY TV, the station where Sharif worked, and their investigation is ongoing, the sources said.
After being expelled from Dubai, Sharif traveled to Kenya as he had limited country options to obtain a visa. Kenya is one of the few countries where he could easily get an e-visa with a Pakistani passport, according to his close friends.
According to sources close to his wife, Sharif landed in Kenya around August 20, where he lived quietly for two months, mostly in hiding. According to his friends and family, he was always afraid of being attacked.
“He never revealed his whereabouts to all of us, his family, his mother and me. He said he was hiding somewhere because he didn’t feel safe and They’re going to assassinate me, so I’m not going to tell you where I am now.
Siddiq, 35, told CNN that he texted him to let him know he was in a “faraway jungle”. However, Sharif’s mother and his wife did not know he was in Kenya until news of his murder surfaced.
“He was so kind and generous and a great photographer. We took pictures together,” Siddiq said.
When Sharif was in Nairobi, he rarely left the apartment where he was staying for fear of being found out, a close friend of his told CNN.
But during his two-month stay, he made more than one trip to a shooting range outside Nairobi and a lodge called Ammodump, according to people familiar with the matter.
On the day he died, Sharif was spending time at a bonfire and barbecue near the camp, according to a staff member who requested anonymity.
After dinner, Sharif and Amodanpu’s owner’s brother left together, the staff said.
Sharif and Khurram Ahmed left Amodanpu at around 8:30 pm local time, a detective involved in the incident told CNN.
Shortly after 10 pm local time, police arrived at the crime scene, approximately 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the shooting site, where Ahmad finally stopped. .
According to initial police reports, that same night police were looking for a reportedly stolen vehicle, a Mercedes-Benz delivery van. Sharif and Ahmad allegedly drove past a makeshift barricade in a Toyota Land Cruiser that police mistook for the missing vehicle and opened fire, killing a journalist.
Police said four officers, including officers from Kenya’s elite police force, were stationed at the barricade. All were standing on the driver’s side of the car when the shooting took place. He added that the driver was not injured in the shooting.
According to a follow-up investigation, police said the first shot came from a car and shot an officer in the hand in the process, and police opened fire, firing at the car at least nine times.
The IPOA, Kenya’s independent police watchdog, is tasked with investigating police conduct.
IPOA CEO Erema Harake said: “We have not investigated any previous events of this incident, or any previous movements or patterns of movement of this Pakistani journalist.” specifies that only the circumstances of the shooting will be investigated.”
Sharif’s death remains a hot-button issue and continues to spark outrage online. chanted “Arshad, from your blood the revolution will come”.
Several theories about his death have circulated on social media, accusing opponents of the Pakistani government and military of plotting his death.
Separate investigations by Kenyan and Pakistani authorities are underway, and in an unprecedented move, Pakistan’s intelligence chief told the media about Sharif’s murder last month on the day of Sharif’s funeral.
Lieutenant General Nadeem Ahmed Anjum said at a press conference, “I have come for my agency, which is staffed day and night around the world. When they are targeted, I am silent.” I can’t,’ he said.
He called Sharif a “martyr” who “had no threat to life in Pakistan”.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court acknowledged receiving Sharif’s letter to CNN by text message, saying it was “processed according to due legal process.”
Pakistani President Arif Alvi said at a media briefing on November 16 that he had sent a letter to the prime minister in July regarding the letter he had received from Sharif, but a press release from his office said, to take action.” .
As investigations accelerate across different continents, his widow Siddiq is forced to pick up the pieces and accept the devastating loss.
“I miss his smile, his voice, his presence,” she told CNN. . “I lost my jewel.”
