According to Kenyan immigration officials, SLAIN journalist Arshad Sharif’s visit visa to the country was sponsored, and he did not receive an entrance visa when he arrived.
According to the police looking into Arshad Sharif’s murder, Arshad arrived in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, on a visit visa after being sponsored by a Nairobi businessman.
According to sources, Waqar Ahmed, a Nairobi-based real estate developer, sent the invitation to visit Kenya on behalf of his brother Khurram Ahmed, who was driving Arshad Sharif’s vehicle on the fateful night of October 23, when Arshad Sharif was shot and killed by Kenyan police in a desolate area.
According to the information available to this reporter, Waqar Ahmed secured a visit visa for Arshad Sharif at the request of a British Pakistani living in Dubai who urged Khurram and Waqar to arrange for Arshad Sharif’s stay in Nairobi.
Arshad Sharif allegedly left Dubai under duress and picked Kenya because it was one of the nations that granted Pakistani nationals visas on arrival. Arshad Sharif undoubtedly left Pakistan quickly from Peshawar to Dubai at the beginning of August of this year due to threats to his life, but immigration officials here revealed that Kenya no longer permitted Pakistani passport holders to enter the country upon arrival, and the record showed that Arshad Sharif arrived in the African nation on August 1.
“Arshad Sharif’s visa was sponsored,” a source said. He used a visit visa to travel to Nairobi. He applied for an e-visa to enter the nation and included a sponsor letter, a copy of his return ticket, a copy of his work contract, the address where he would be residing, and a local contact number with his application.
Arshad Sharif was certified to be in Kenya legally and on a visit visa by the Kenyan immigration ministry, a Pakistani diplomat in the country informed Geo News. Americans and Britons with passports must also seek a visa in order to enter the nation. As Sharif entered the nation, a Kenyan immigration official explained that on-arrival visas were only given out in extraordinary circumstances.
Pakistan’s investigating team, made up of FIA Director Athar Wahid and Intelligence Bureau (IB) Deputy Director General Omar Shahid Hamid, has questioned both Waqar and Khurram to determine the truth. Waqar Ahmed admitted to the investigating team that he had only ever met Arshad Sharif once, and that encounter had taken place at a dinner, to which the senior journalist had been invited to his lodge outside of Nairobi. “On the day of the incident, Arshad joined us for dinner at our resort. He drove off after the lunch with my brother Khurram, and 30 minutes later there was a report of gunfire on the automobile, he told the team.
The two brothers revealed to the Pakistani investigators that the murdered journalist had extended his visa in order to move to Nairobi. According to a source here, Arshad Sharif’s initial visa was valid for one month before being extended. He came in the Kenyan capital on August 20 and passed away on October 23 during a shootout that miraculously saw Khurram escape.
