In a major development, the Kenyan authorities have refused to further cooperate with Pakistan investigators in the Arshad Sharif murder investigation.
According to the reported details, the Pakistani authorities have written to Kenya’s Foreign Office requesting they be allowed to start a fresh investigation into the murder of journalist Arshad Sharif.
However, the Kenyan government has made it clear on more than five occasions that the African country has done enough and will not allow any more investigations inside the country. The Kenyan authorities allegedly told Pakistani authorities that it provided every possible help to two Pakistani investigators and that it was not ready to do the same all over again.
Read more: Heartfelt tributes pour in for late Arshad Sharif on birth anniversary
Furthermore, the Kenyan government, police, and intelligence services are “very upset” by the conclusions drawn in the investigation report by Pakistani authorities which accused the Kenyan police of being complicit, non-professional, changing statements, lacking will to investigate the murder properly, and plot cover-up.
On the other hand, an investigation by the Kenyan authorities concluded that Arshad Sharif’s killing was a case of “mistaken identity” where four members of Kenya’s para-military General Service Unit (GSU) killed him in a random shootout because his driver Khurram Ahmed didn’t stop at the roadblock and that there was no murder planning.
Arshad Sharif’s murder
The senior journalist and former ARY News anchor, Arshad Sharif, was killed in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on October 23 where he was living in self-exile. Kenyan police first said that the journalist was killed in a case of “mistaken identity” but since his post-mortem and his body’s transfer to Pakistan, several Kenyan news outlets have not only questioned the police’s conduct but have raised questions over the manner in which he was killed.
The mysterious circumstances surrounding Arshad Sharif’s murder had raised a storm in Pakistan, with the Supreme Court of Pakistan taking a suo moto notice of the killing of senior journalist Arshad Sharif to ensure an independent and transparent investigation is carried out in the case. More than five thousand letters were sent to the Supreme Court to investigate the murder of Arshad Sharif.
Read more: SC gives govt. deadline to register FIR of Arshad Sharif’s killing