Arshad Sharif was a vehement critic of Pakistan’s all-powerful military and a supporter of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was ousted in April by a vote of no confidence.
“A Pakistani national has been killed, allegedly by the police,” Ann Makori, head of Kenya’s Independent Police Oversight Authority (Ipoa), told reporters on Monday.
“Our rapid response team has already been deployed to investigate the journalist’s death,” she added.
According to a police report seen by AFP, the car carrying Mr Sharif and another man was hit by nine bullets on Sunday evening as it passed an improvised roadblock in a remote area about 40 km from Nairobi .
The report does not say who fired the shots, but states that the car continued on its way until it arrived at the house of another Pakistani citizen.
There, Mr. Sharif was pronounced dead, with “a bullet wound to the head which had penetrated from behind”.
The report adds that at the time of the events, the police were looking for a stolen car and a person who had just been abducted. But he does not explain what the connection is with Mr. Sharif’s death.
In August, Mr. Sharif had interviewed on the channel Ary News a close adviser to Imran Khan, Shahbaz Gill, who had on this occasion urged the officers of the army to disobey orders contrary “to the will of the majority (of the people)”.
These statements had been considered seditious by the authorities. Ary News was then briefly prevented from broadcasting by the media regulator and an arrest warrant was issued for Mr Sharif, who had by then left the country.
The channel later announced that it had “cut (its) ties” with the presenter.
Mr. Gill had been arrested after his interview on Ary News. Imran Khan then claimed that his adviser had been tortured and sexually abused in detention, which had earned him several court appearances, on charges of contempt of court and breach of the anti-terrorism law which have since been dropped.
“I lost a friend, a husband and my favorite journalist today,” Sharif’s wife, Javeria Siddique, tweeted on Monday. The Pakistani Foreign Ministry also confirmed that it had been informed of the journalist’s death.
Criticism of the military and powerful security services has long been seen as a red line in Pakistan, ranked among the world’s most dangerous countries for media professionals.
Pakistan occupies 157th place out of 180 in the press freedom ranking compiled by Reporters Without Borders.
