Islamabad: Funeral prayers of senior journalist and television anchorperson Arshad Sharif were offered amid high security at Islamabad Faisal Mosque on Thursday. Sharif was shot dead by the Kenyan police Sunday night in a “mistaken identity” case while he was travelling to Nairobi.
Scores of people including members of journalists fraternity attended Sharif’s funeral prayer. He will be laid to rest shortly after receiving the last salutations from his family, friends and fans, and will be buried at the H-11 cemetery in the federal capital.
Sharif’s body was flown to Pakistan from Kenya in the early hours of Wednesday. Members of his family received his body at the Islamabad airport. In Kenya, the country’s police, in its first report, admitted to killing him. The Kenyan police said that Sharif was shot in the head in a mistaken identity case.
At his family’s request, an eight-member medical board of the PIMS hospital carried out the postmortem on his body at the hospital. An ENT surgeon and an OMFS surgeon were also included in the team of doctors at the family’s request.
The PIMS medical board also conducted an X-ray and CT scan of his body at the hospital. Sources said that the initial postmortem report is expected to be released today. Professor Hashim Raza of the PIMS hospital said that forensics of the samples sent to the laboratory may take some days.