Pakistani senior journalist Arshad Sharif shot dead in Kajiado
A prominent Pakistani journalist was fatally shot dead yesterday night along the Nairobi-Magadi highway.
Arshad Sharif died instantly by bullet that police term as ‘mistaken identity.’
According to preliminary reports, after Sharif and his driver allegedly ignored a roadblock established to check on vehicles using the route, the move prompted a swift chase that culminated to his shooting.
Reports from police headquarters indicate that the matter has been shouldered to Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) who have been sent to Kajiado to probe the incident.
“We had a shooting that was a mistaken identity situation involving a journalist. Later, we will provide more details,” said an officer.
It has been established that after a carjacking incident in Nairobi’s Pangani neighborhood where a child was taken hostage, there was a request for police to stop any vehicle similar to that of Sharif.
The journalist was well-known in Pakistan, where news of the incident quickly spread.
Javeria Siddiqui, Sharif’s wife, confirmed the awful news on Twitter and acknowledged that her husband had died in Kenya.
“I lost a friend, husband and my favorite journalist [Arshad Sharif] today, as per police he was shot in Kenya,” she tweeted.
She also requested people and the media to refrain from posting on social media any images of their families, private information, or Sharif’s final images from the hospital.
