ISLAMABAD - Senior journalist Arshad Sharif who was shot and killed amid mysterious circumstances in Kenya on Sunday last week was laid to rest at the H-11 graveyard after his funeral prayers were offered at the Shah Faisal Mosque here on Thursday.
A large number of people belonging to various walks of life attended the funeral prayers. Strict security arrangements were made around the Mosque to avoid any untoward incident during the last rituals of the slain journalist. A large contingent of police was deployed at the graveyard where journalists and members of the civil society reached in huge numbers. During Sharif’s burial, slogans of “Allahu Akbar” were chanted. Afterwards, personnel of the Pakistan Army paid tribute to the journalist and a garland from Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa was laid at his grave. Earlier, a large number of journalists, politicians and civil society members including Azam Swati, Shibli Faraz, Murad Saeed, Faisal Karim Kundi, Kashif Abbasi, Waseem Badami and Sami Ibrahim attended the funeral prayers. According to rough estimates, around 40,000 people attended the funeral while thousands others gathered outside the Faisal Mosque. Supporters of the PTI made up a large proportion of the crowd, waving flags and shouting “Arshad, your blood will bring revolution.” After prayers, coffin bearers struggled to push through the crowd to a waiting ambulance for onward passage to the graveyard. Sharif was shot dead in Kenya allegedly by the local police on Sunday night, with an official police statement saying an investigation was underway. Sharif’s body arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday. A post-mortem was later conducted at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad. At his family’s request, an eight-member medical board of the PIMS hospital carried out the postmortem on his body at the hospital. The 49-year-old journalist had fled the country in August to avoid arrest after he was slapped with multiple cases, including sedition charges over an interview with PTI leader Shahbaz Gill during which the latter had made controversial comments. The death of the journalist sent shock waves across rights organisations, the media fraternity and civil society and prompted calls for thorough investigation and disclosure of facts