KARACHI – PTI leader Faisal Vawda claimed on Wednesday that slain journalist Arshad Sharif was shot at from a close range within the vehicle, adding that his murdered was pre-planned.
Addressing an explosive press conference, the former minister said that Sharif was intimidated to move out of Pakistan as he did not want to leave the country.
Sharif, 49, was shot dead by Kenyan police in what they claimed a case of “mistaken identity” some kilometers away from the capital city on Sunday night, while he was returning from Magadi Town.
The police of the East African country, in a statement, said they were searching for a stolen vehicle with an abducted child inside on October 23 when Sharif’s car did not stop at a checkpoint. Officers opened fire and one bullet hit the journalist in the head, leaving him dead on the spot.
The investigative journalist, who was a critic of country’s establishment, moved out of Pakistan in August after sedition case was filed against him over controversial remarks made by PTI leader Shahbaz Gill in his programme on a private news channel.
Vawda said that the investigative journalist was sent to Kenya under a conspiracy, which had been hatched here in Pakistan.
He also rejected the claim that Sharif was forced to leave the United Arab Emirates (UAE), adding: “I was in contact with Arshad Sharif till last and he wanted to come back to Pakistan”. He said that he was ready for the forensic of his mobile phone record.
The PTI leader said that he can submit the evidence to ISI and Military Intelligence (MI) in the Sharif’s killing case. He claimed that establishment had not role in killing of the investigative journalist.
“Influential persons who are behind this conspiracy are not far away from me,” he said, adding that he had recorded the names of the conspirators in a video.
“If anything bad happens to me, they will be responsible,” Vawda said, adding that he will expose the names of some people in coming days.
He said that evidence in Arshad Sharif murder case had been destroyed, adding that no one will be able to find his mobile phone and laptop.
He also warned that some key personalities would also be targeted in coming days.
Talking about the PTI’s long march, he feared that there will be bloodbath in guise of peaceful protest.
Talking about the PTI’s long march, he feared that bloodshed could happen in guise of peaceful protest.
Vawda alleged that the long march was a part of a conspiracy like the one to murder Sharif. “Imran Khan’s peaceful march is our right but I’m seeing blood, deaths and funerals in this long march.”
The PTI leader vowed that he would not allow innocent people to die for some conspiracy, adding that he the game of dead bodies should be come to an end.
‘Pakistani killer squad behind Arshad Sharif’s assassination,’ says Nairobi s ex-governor
