A senior Pakistan journalist, facing charges of sedition and peddling an “anti-state” narrative by the country’s security agencies, has been shot dead in Kenya.
Arshad Sharif, 49, fled his country just months ago. Kenya police searching for car thieves, opened fire on the vehicle he was travelling in as it passed through a roadblock without stopping Sunday night.
Arshad was a frequent critic of current Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif and a supporter of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was ousted in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in April.
Kenya’s Independent Police Oversight Authority (IPOA), a civilian watchdog, has launched an investigation into Sharif’s killing.
Sharif’s wife Javeria Siddique took to Twitter on Monday to confirm the news of his death.
“I lost a friend, husband and my favourite journalist today, as per police he was shot in Kenya,” she said in a tweet.
“Respect our privacy and in the name of breaking pls don’t share our family pics, personal details and his last pictures from the hospital. Remember us in ur prayers (sic),” she added.