ISI official dropped from team to probe Arshad’s killing
The government on Wednesday excluded the Inter-Services Intelligence official from a team formed to investigate the killing of journalist Arshad Sharif in Kenya, cutting the team’s size from three to two and leaving only Federal Investigation Agency and the Intelligence Bureau representatives on it.
Initially, the interior minister had on Tuesday formed a three-member team comprising FIA director Athar Wahid, IB deputy director general Omar Shahid Hamid and Lt-Col Saad Ahmed of Inter-Services Intelligence to probe the murder.
However, the Ministry of Interior’s notification issued Wednesday only mentioned the IB and FIA officials. It did not offer an explanation for the ISI official’s exclusion.
“The team will travel to Kenya immediately,” the notification said, adding the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Pakistan’s High Commission in Nairobi, Kenya will facilitate the visit of the committee members. It said the committee will present its report to the interior division.
Later in the day, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital Director Dr Khalid Masud told media that Sharif’s postmortem was conducted by an eight-member team of senior doctors.
He said that the journalist’s X-ray had been completed while the CT-scan was under way as per the medical team’s recommendation.
Masud added that Sharif was likely to be later transferred to the Quaid-e-Azam International Hospital mortuary.
In a tweet, Sharif’s wife Javeria Siddique said she was present during the process and said the PIMS administration and police had cooperated with her.
She said Sharif’s funeral would be held on Thursday at 2pm in the Shah Faisal Mosque.
Earliert, the body of slain journalist arrived in Islamabad. “My Arshad is back, but in [a] coffin,” his wife Javeria Siddique said on Twitter. She also shared a video showing the coffin.
Senior PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry also tweeted about the chaotic situation at the Islamabad airport. The police officers, allegedly behind the killing of senior journalist Arshad Sharif, have surrendered their weapons, while one cop has claimed that the car in which the anchorperson was travelling fired upon them first, reported Kenyan media on Wednesday.
As per the Kenyan publication, The Star, law enforcement personnel are trying to determine if any other shooter was involved in the incident and the injury of one of the officers involved in the shootout.
The Star reported that the Kenyan police are expected to question the owners of the Ammodump Kwenia Shooting Range, where Sharif was before he was killed.
The publication reported that the shooting range calls itself a major recce site for security personnel looking to hone their shooting skills.
The publication also reported that Sharif’s driver, Khurram Ahmed, is the brother of the owner of the range, Waqar Ahmed.
Khurram had called Waqar after the shooting and informed him of the incident. It was then that Waqar instructed his brother to drive Sharif to a shopping centre for first aid.
The driver is being considered among persons of interest in the probe. The publication had tried reaching out to him but was unsuccessful.
The publication stated that Corporal Kelvin Mutuku, one of the officers involved in the shooting, was admitted to a hospital with a bullet injury on his left palm.
The publication shared that the corporal said that he and his colleagues were fired upon before the car carrying Sharif approached the roadblock they had established.
The Star reported the officers, who are trainers at the local police training camp, claimed that they were positioned in one area at the time of the incident and it is unlikely the bullet was friendly fire.
The first shot is being claimed as the reason for the subsequent shooting at Sharif’s car
The publication said that Corporal Mutuku told the police that they drove from the training camp to the site of the shooting after they received information that a car that was missing was sighted in the Kiserian area of Kenya.
