Arshad Sharif, a well-known Pakistani journalist and TV host, was shot and killed on the road between Nairobi and Magadi on Sunday night. Police said it was a case of “mistaken identity.”
Local news reports say that Sharif was shot in the head and killed by police after he and his driver broke through a roadblock that was set up to check on cars on the route.
In the accident, his driver was also hurt.
Police said that they were driving from Magadi town to Nairobi when a group of police officers stopped them at a roadblock.
Police say that at the roadblock, they were supposed to stop a car like the one Sharif and his driver were in because a child was taken hostage in a carjacking in the Pangani neighborhood of Nairobi.
-How the wife reacted-
Sharif’s wife, Javeria Siddique, had tweeted earlier, “I lost my best friend, my husband, and my favorite journalist @arsched today. “Based on what the police said, he was shot in Kenya.”
“Please respect our privacy and don’t post pictures of our family, personal information, or his last pictures from the hospital. Don’t forget us in your prayers,” she said.
“The death of Arshad Sharif is a big loss for journalism and for Pakistan. “May his soul rest in peace, and may his family and followers have the strength to deal with this loss,” tweeted President Arif Alvi.
Sharif worked for the local English newspaper Dawn for a while, and then he hosted a popular political show for several years on the local TV station ARY News.
Sharif has gone to Dubai.
Sharif left the country in August, first for Dubai and then for London, after his channel cut ties with him without giving a reason. This happened after a no-trust vote in April got rid of former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Sharif and other ARY employees were charged with sedition because of a controversial August interview on the channel with Shahbaz Gill, a leader of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. Gill was later taken into custody and given bail.
Start looking into it.
The Independent Police Oversight Authority (Ipoa) in Kenya says that it has started looking into the death of Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif.
Its head, Ann Makori, told reporters in the capital, Nairobi, that a quick response team has been sent to look into the journalist’s death.
Sharif was known to be a strong backer of Khan, and he spoke out against what he thought was the role of state institutions in Khan’s removal.
