Funeral prayers for the senior journalist and former ARY News anchorperson Arshad Sharif have been offered in Islamabad. The funeral prayers were offered at Faisal Mosque amid high security.
Scores of people from all walks of life, including members of the journalistic community, attended the funeral prayers of Arshad Sharif. Videos of a mammoth crowd gathered at Faisal Mosque are going viral on social media.
Pertinent to mention that Faisal Mosque has a capacity of accommodating 300,000 worshippers. Videos show the mosque jam-packed with people paying their last respects to Arshad Sharif.
شہید ارشد شریف کا جنازہ pic.twitter.com/fGWQGydCIC
— Anwar Lodhi (@AnwarLodhi) October 27, 2022
اس سے کئی گنا زیادہ لوگ موجود تھے ارشد شریف کا بیانیہ جیت رہا ہے بس تھوڑی ہمت اور
پاکستان زندہ باد
pic.twitter.com/rrzYNoIPj2— Imran Khan (@ImranRiazKhan) October 27, 2022
Arshad Sharif will be laid to rest shortly after receiving the last salutations from his family, friends, and fans, and will be buried at the H-11 cemetery in the federal capital.
Strict security arrangements have been put in place around Shah Faisal Mosque to avoid any eventuality during the last rituals of the slain journalist.
Read more: Slain journalist Arshad Sharif gets heroic welcome in Pakistan
According to the details, security around Shah Faisal Mosque was beefed up ahead of the funeral, with the deployment of 3,792 security personnel. These include six inspectors and 1,010 police constables. Sindh police personnel, numbering 204, and 2,500 Frontier Corps personnel were also deputed to assist the Islamabad police.
Arshad Sharif’s murder
Senior journalist Arshad Sharif was shot dead by the Kenyan police Sunday night in a “mistaken identity” case while he was traveling to Nairobi. In Kenya, the country’s police, in its first report, admitted to killing him. The Kenyan police said that Arshad Sharif was shot in the head in a mistaken identity case.
However, reports from the Kenyan media later reconstructed the events surrounding the killing and noted contradictory versions of police.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced that a judicial commission would be formed to probe the journalist’s killing. The military has also requested the government to conduct a “high-level investigation” into the “accidental” killing.
Read more: Arshad Sharif was killed in ‘targeted attack’: Imran Khan
Arshad Sharif’s body arrived in Pakistan yesterday (Wednesday). A post-mortem was later conducted at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad.