By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: Senior journalist and television anchorperson Arshad Sharif was laid to rest in Islamabad’s H-11 cemetery on Thursday.
The journalist was laid to rest after his funeral prayers were offered amid high security at Islamabad’s Faisal Mosque. Scores of people including members of journalists’ fraternity attended Sharif’s funeral prayer.
Meanwhile, PTI Chairman Imran Khan along with other PTI leaders offered the funeral prayers of the slain journalist in Lahore absentia. The prayers were attended by PTI leaders Asad Umar, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Shahbaz Gill, Hammad Azhar and others.
Sharif was shot dead in Kenya allegedly by the local police on Sunday night, with an official police statement later expressing “regrets on the unfortunate incident” and saying an investigation was underway.
Initially, the Kenyan media quoted the local police as saying Sharif was shot dead by police in a case of “mistaken identity”.
However, reports from the Kenyan media later reconstructed the events surrounding the killing, stating that an occupant in Sharif’s car at the time of his killing was believed to have shot at paramilitary General Service Unit (GSU) officers.
“They were stopped by GSU officers who, according to the police, were responding to reports that a stolen vehicle had been sighted in the area,” a report by Nation Media Group said.
The report noted contradictory versions of police that earlier claimed Sharif and his brother defied orders at a checkpoint but later alleged that Sharif’s brother “shot at” one officer and injured him. It quoted police as saying that the incident prompted police to shoot back.
Sharif’s body arrived in Pakistan Wednesday. A post-mortem was later conducted at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad.
