December 11, 2022
By Rehan Piracha
LAHORE
Voicepk.net takes a look at the key takeaways from the report of the Fact-Finding Team recently submitted to the Supreme Court about journalist Arshad Sharif’s killing in Kenya on October 23.
1. The TFT findings state an absence of a puncture in the passenger seat of the Land Cruiser at that angle means that Arshad Sharif’s head injury is a ballistic impossibility based on Kenyan police and host Khurram’s version of the facts.
2. The headshot injury was either caused before Arshad Sharif got into the vehicle, or the shot was fired from a relatively close range, possibly from inside the vehicle, and almost certainly not in a moving vehicle.
3. Kenyan host Waqar handed over Arshad Sharifs IPad and IPhone to Kenyan intelligence NIS and not to Pakistan embassy staff when they came to collect the journalist’s personal belonging, pointing to linkage with national and international agencies with a scope of
possibility of transnational characters In the case.
4. The post-mortem report in Pakistan Identified that the nails of Arshad Sharif’s four fingers of the left hand were missing, giving rise to torture speculation but Kenyan police stated nails were taken as DNA samples. No concrete evidence to establish torture before death
5. Findings conclude Arshad Sharif’s killing planned targeted assassination with transnational characters rather than a case of
mistaken Identity.
6. Kenyan police version is full of contradictions and local authorities are not keen on investigating the Pakistani journalist’s killing.
7. Arshad Sharif was most likely compelled to leave by UAE authorities
8. UAE authorities did not cooperate with the FFT personnel and did not divulge why Arshad Sharif left the country
9. FFT could not locate the alleged UAE intelligence official who according to ARY owner Salman Iqbal reportedly visited Arshad Sharif in his UAE hotel on August 19. Arshad Sharif left UAE for Kenya following the meeting.
10. According to a threat alert by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s police counter-terrorism department in August, Arshad Sharif was likely to be targetted by Tehrik Taliban Pakistan
11. The journalist has been booked under several first information reports (FIRs) relating to propaganda against miliatry and COAS across the country. FFT could confirm 9 such cases in Karachi, Pishin, Qilla Abdullah, Quetta, Islamabad, Dadu, Thatta, and Hyderabad
12. Arshad Sharif left Pakistan on the day the last case was registered against him, Shahbaz Gill and ARY staff on the insistence of intelligence officials in Memon Goth police station in Karachi on August 8.
13. Pakistani embassy and consul staff in UAE and Kenya were unaware of Arshad Sharif’s stay in these countries.
