Probe into leaked Arshad Sharif’s gory images kicks off
The late Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif. He was shot dead at a police roadblock on the Nairobi-Magadi road.
The Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PMS) has set up a committee to investigate who leaked to the media images of slain journalist Arshad Sharif taken during a postmortem examination.
The images were leaked to a journalist, who then broadcast them on television.
The journalist later apologised, saying he had to leak the images to push the Pakistan government to speed up investigations and say clearly what happened to Mr Sharif.
The journalist also claimed that the postmortem had shown that Mr Sharif was tortured before he was killed.
“The senior journalist was brutally tortured for over three hours and his nails were pulled from fingers before being martyred, while his fingers and ribs were also broken due to severe torture,” the journalist claimed.
He sensationally claimed that the killing was a premeditated assassination, saying that “the shots were fired from … close range on the back of his [Sharif] head”.
Following the report, the Nation reached out to Dr Ahmed Kalebi, an independent consultant pathologist based in Nairobi, who analysed the two postmortem examination reports to explain the cause of death.
Autopsy reports
The two postmortem reports were released by pathologists in Pakistan and Kenya. Dr Kalebi dismissed claims that Mr Sharif was tortured before his shooting to death.
Mr Sharif was shot on October 23 by General Service Unit (GSU) officers on the Magadi-Kiserian road in Kajiado West, Kajiado County.
He had just left a club popular with Indian and Pakistan nationals called AmmoDump Kwenia and was heading to Nairobi in a vehicle driven by Mr Khurram Ahmed, who was his host in Kenya.
The Kenyan government had accepted that the incident was a result of mistaken identity as police officers pursued a vehicle allegedly stolen in Ngara, Nairobi.
A shootout ensued at a roadblock guarded by the GSU officers, leading to the death of the former news anchor.
The two-member committee is expected to release the results of the inquiry before disciplinary action is taken against the suspect who leaked the images.
Committee members are also planning to hold a meeting with the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) to ask them to take action against the station that exposed the images.
The postmortem results had been delayed, prompting Riffat Ara Alvi, the mother of the slain journalist, to pen a letter denouncing a commission that was formed to investigate the matter.
She addressed the letter to Pakistan’s Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, demanding that a high-powered team be formed to make sure that the case does not become controversial.
Ms Alvi argues that the commission should consist of Supreme Court judges and should aim to unearth the real motive of the murder.
“Only knowing the real motive and criminals and bringing them to justice will end the agony of Shaheed Arshad Sharif’s family and his journalist fraternity. Otherwise, I will rest my case to Allah awaiting His justice,” part of the letter said.
