The funeral for Arshad Sharif on Thursday drew thousands of admirers to his home city in Islamabad where mourners prayed and paid their respects to the slain journalist.
Thousands of Pakistanis arrived at Islamabad’s Shah Faisal Mosque to attend the funeral prayers of popular TV journalist Arshad Sharif, mysteriously killed in Kenya last week.
Emotions ran high after the funeral and people chanted slogans like “Arshad, your blood will bring revolution,” outside the mosque and later the cemetery.
After the funeral prayers, Sharif was laid to rest around 4:30 pm at the H-11 cemetery in Islamabad.
Postmortem report
Meanwhile, an eight-member medical board has completed Arshad Sharif’s post-mortem to determine the cause of his death. Sharif was shot in the head and chest and he succumbed to his injuries 10 to 30 minutes after being shot, revealed the preliminary postmortem report issued on Thursday.
“Detailed external and internal examination was done. Specimens were taken and submitted for pathology, toxicology and forensic examination,” the report stated.
“Bullet injuries in his head and the right lung were the causes of his death,” says the initial postmortem report.
The post-mortem examination was performed at Islamabad’s PIMS hospital. The medical board comprised Dr. Khalid Masud, Professor SH Waqar, Professor Dr. Mumtaz Khan Niazi, Professor Dr. Farrukh Kamal, Dr. Irshad Hussain, Dr. Nasreen Butt, Dr. Altaf Hussain, and Dr. Mohammad Umar Farooq.
Two members of the panel, PIMS ENT Head Dr. Altaf Hussain and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery head Dr. Muhammad Irshad Hussain, were added to the medical board at the request of Sharif’s family.
A case of mistaken identity
Sharif, lately a fierce critic of the incumbent ruling coalition and the establishment, was killed Sunday night after being shot by the Kenyan police at a checkpoint outside the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Later, the Kenyan police called the killing “a case of mistaken identity”.
The renowned journalist had fled the country in August, citing threats to his life. At the time Sharif left the country, he was facing a slew of court cases, including sedation charges. He was believed to have been in the UAE since he left Pakistan and had recently traveled to Kenya from the Emirates.
Team sent to investigate murder
Pakistan Government has also sent a two-member team comprising of an IB and an FIA official to Kenya to investigate the murder of the journalist and “ascertain the facts”.
