Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Tuesday wrote a letter to the Consul General of Pakistan in Dubai seeking information about slain journalist Arshad Sharif’s stay in the city before his murder earlier this year.
Kenyan police shot and killed Sharif on October 24. Initial reports in Kenyan media claimed that Sharif was killed by police in a “mistaken identity” incident.
A passenger in Sharif’s car at the time of his death, however, was thought to have fired at paramilitary General Service Unit (GSU) officers, according to later reports from the Kenyan media.
The government subsequently formed a team that travelled to Kenya to investigate the killing.
It is pertinent to mention here that Sharif left Pakistan in August after a number of cases were registered against him. It was reported that he was initially staying in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after which he went to Kenya.
Earlier, PTI had alleged that the journalist was “forced” to leave Dubai by authorities in Pakistan. The Foreign Office had, however, dismissed these claims.
In the letter today, according to Dawn, the FIA and IB said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had formed a two-member fact-finding committee to probe the journalist’s murder.
The team has already visited Kenya and is now pursuing some leads in Dubai, the letter stated, adding that the team asked the Dubai police authorities to assist the investigating team about Arshad Sharif’s whereabouts, travel-related documents, CCTV footage etc.
The letter further requested the Dubai authorities to nominate a focal person from the local police to “liaise with” the investigating team in Pakistan.
