The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) on Tuesday wrote a letter to the Consul General of Pakistan in Dubai seeking information on slain journalist Arshad Sharif’s stay in the city before his murder earlier this year.

Sharif was shot dead in Kenya on October 24. Initially, Kenyan media quoted the local police as saying Sharif was shot dead by police in a case of “mistaken identity”.

But later reports from the Kenyan media reconstructed the events surrounding the killing, stating that an occupant in Sharif’s car at the time of his killing was believed to have shot at paramilitary General Service Unit (GSU) officers.

The government subsequently formed a team that travelled to Kenya to investigate the killing.

It is pertinent to mention here that Sharif left Pakistan in August after a number of cases were registered against him. It was reported that he was initially staying in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after which he went to Kenya.

Earlier, PTI had alleged that the journalist was “forced” to leave Dubai by authorities in Pakistan. The Foreign Office had, however, dismissed these claims.

In the letter today, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, the FIA and IB said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had formed a two-member fact-finding committee to probe the journalist’s murder.

“In this regard, the team has already visited Kenya and is now pursuing some leads in Dubai,” it stated, requesting the Dubai police authorities to assist the investigating team with the following points:

• Copy of visa and travel-related documents issued to Arshad Sharif
• Identification of the place of residence of Arshad Sharif during his stay in Dubai from August 10 to August 20.
• Any CCTV footage, if available, of the premises.
• A mapping of the movement of Arshad Sharif during his stay in Dubai.
• Any information regarding any persons he met during his stay.
• Clarification over whether Sharif’s visa was canceled and if so, any reasons why.
• CDR (call data record) of Sharif’s phone, which as per information, was in use during his stay.
• Any data on arrivals and departures of Pakistani passport holders from August 10 to August 20.
• CDR of the phone numbers of ARY News CEO Salman Iqbal and ARY operations head Tariq Wasi.
• Any information about whether any UAE government officials met Arshad Sharif and asked him to leave the country.

The letter further requested the Dubai authorities to nominate a focal person from the local police to “liaise with” the investigating team in Pakistan.