Arshad Sharif death: Police seek to unravel mystery of Pakistani journalist’s missing phone and tablet
The late Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif. He was shot dead at a police roadblock on the Nairobi-Magadi road.
Investigators want to know the whereabouts of a phone and iPad belonging to Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif, who was shot dead in Kenya last month.
The team of Pakistani investigators, who had been sent to probe the killing of the journalist on October 23, asked questions about who might have taken the missing gadgets at a crucial time when the journalist had just been shot.
The team, which included the Pakistan Federal Investigation Agency Director Athar Wahid and Intelligence Bureau Deputy Director General Omar Shahid Hamid questioned Waqar Ahmed and Khurram Ahmed, the two brothers who hosted Mr Sharif.
Sources said the brothers have also been asked to provide full details of the individuals who asked them to host the journalist in Kenya.
Mr Sharif had been in Dubai before travelling to Kenya and now it has emerged that the two brothers had offered to host him here in Kenya. He left Dubai, where he was under pressure from the authorities there, which threatened to send him back to his home country, which he had escaped from after receiving death threats, his family said a day after he was murdered.
The investigating team, which left Kenya last Friday, also wants copies of CCTV footage from the apartment Mr Sharif had lived in for two months and three days. He lived with the families of the two brothers.
They also want to know the names and contact details of the instructors who were present at the training site known as Ammodump Kweni at the time Mr Sharif was killed.
“Also provide us with the names and contact details of all staff employed by the management at the joint and list of individuals who met with Mr Arshad Sharif during his stay at your premises,” the demand letter to the two brothers read.
When the Nation visited the place in Kajiado West sub-county, which is associated with Pakistan and Indian nationals, a day after his death the management declined to comment and promised to make a call later, but it did not.
The team of investigators also found out that his visa had been sponsored by the two brothers and that he arrived in the country on August 20.
In his statement to the team, Mr Waqar Ahmed said he had met with Mr Sharif just once before he invited him for dinner at Ammodump Kweni joint, which he owns.
“I met Arshad Sharif only once and that too at a dinner,” he told the investigation team, adding that he had invited the senior journalist for a meal at his lodge outside Nairobi.
“On the day of the incident, Arshad had a meal with us at our lodge. After the meal, Arshad Sharif left with my brother Khurram in the car and half an hour later there was a report of firing on the vehicle,” he said.
Information given by the two brothers revealed that Mr Sharif planned to permanently move his family to Kenya. He had even extended his visa.
The family that hosted Mr Sharif here in Kenya has never agreed to any interview in the local media.
It has emerged that Mr Sharif’s wife had asked him to leave Kenya and seek political asylum in another country, saying that she did not believe Kenya was safe.
Javeria Siddique, who has been vocal about the death of her husband, said she had wanted him out of Kenya because he had been threatened continuously for six months. She insisted that Mr Sharif knew the two brothers who are now at the centre of the investigations.
In an exclusive interview with the Nation Ms Siddique said her family was planning to move the case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations and has its headquarters in The Hague in the Netherlands.
“The governments of Pakistan and Kenya will never provide us with justice. We want the UN to investigate the incident,” she said.
However, the spokesperson for the Secretary-General, Stephanie Dujarric, said: “I saw this tragic report of his death. I think the circumstances need to be investigated thoroughly, and the Kenyan authorities said they would.”
Separately, Mr Sharif’s family has complained that the statements the police issued after he was killed lacked consistency.
In a letter penned by Riffat Ara Alvi, his mother, she accused Kenya of changing statements about the circumstances of her son’s death.
“Kenyan police changed their stance and statements three to four times. Well even before the investigation team had left for Kenya, federal ministers started airing different fabricated stories in relation to the death of my son which are available on media reports,” Ms Alvi said in a letter to Pakistan Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial.
She requested that the Chief Justice form a high-level judicial commission to probe the circumstances of the death of her only son.
It was the second letter to the Chief Justice on matters linked to Mr Sharif.
It has emerged that on July 12, 2022, the journalist had written to inform the Chief Justice that his life was in danger as he was being threatened and there were numerous cases against him in court.
“When my son reached Dubai, I was content and less worried as I thought that my only living son’s life was out of danger and that he was safe from the false and frivolous cases of sedition. The Pakistan government, however, pressured and compelled the government of the United Arabs Emirates to expel my son from there,” the letter read.
She further asked the Chief Justice of Pakistan to set up a judicial commission consisting of senior judges of the Supreme Court to determine the real motive of the murder and also help in identifying those behind it.
In Kenya, the officers attached to the General Service Unit who have been accused of shooting dead Mr Sharif are yet to be arraigned.
Police sources told reporters that a number of officers had been questioned in connection with the death.
“We did the investigations and have already handed over the files to IPOA and the Internal Affairs Unit. They are the ones currently handling the matter,” a senior detective told the Nation on the phone.
The Independent Policing and Oversight Authority said the investigations are at an advanced stage.
