Kenya’s Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA), which investigates police misconduct, has opened an investigations into the journalist’s killing. Some IPOA investigations, however, have dragged on for years and a number remain open.
The Foreign Press Association of
Africa released a statement saying it was “deeply disturbed” over the killing and called on the Kenyan government to “fully and conclusively investigate the incident” and “unravel the mystery” behind Sharif’s death.
His, wife Javeria Siddique, told Pakistani media that he had been facing harassment for months. He “did not even disclose the name of the country in Africa where he had moved to because of security threats”,she said.
Shireen Mazari, a former human rights minister in Pakistan,
tweeted: “Let there be no confusion, Arshad Sharif was murdered by a sniper bullet to his head. It was not an accident as is now being floated.” She presented no evidence to back up her claim.
Sharif, who was once close to the military establishment, became one of its fiercest critics this year. ARY Network, one of the largest channels in Pakistan, which Sharif worked with, was taken off air after his show was accused of fanning “anti-military sentiment”. The channel later announced that it was parting ways with him amid suspicions of pressure from the military.
A court in Islamabad asked Pakistan’s intelligence agency and police in August to stop harassing Sharif after he lodged a petition through his lawyer saying the security forces were violating his fundamental rights. Police and government sources confirmed at the time that he was being sought in a complaint case but said no action had been carried out to arrest him.
Pakistan has long been unsafe for journalists. It ranked ninth on the Committee to Protect Journalists’ 2020 global impunity index, an annual assessment of countries where journalists are regularly killed and the assailants go free.
Police say Arshad Sharif was shot after his car failed to stop at a roadblock near Nairobi
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