PTI leader Faisal Vawda claimed on Wednesday that slain journalist Arshad Sharif was shot at from a close range within the vehicle, adding that his murder was “conspired in Pakistan”.

“Arshad Sharif was intimidated to move out of Pakistan as he did not want to leave the country,” the PTI leader said addressing a press conference in Islamabad.

Vawda said that Sharif was sent to Kenya under a conspiracy, which had been hatched here in Pakistan, adding that the evidence of the crime has been erased.

“One will not be able to find Sharif’s mobile phone or laptop because all of it has been destroyed,”

He also rejected the claim that Sharif was forced to leave Dubai. “I was in contact with Arshad Sharif and he wanted to come back to Pakistan,” the former minister added.

“It is being said that around 20 bullets were shot and Arshad Sharif was killed. But this did not happen. According to me, he was shot from inside the car or close range. He received 2 bullets, in the head and chest, not 20 bullets.”

Vawda said that two bullets were fired at him, one to the head and the other to the chest by a person either sitting in the car or present at a very close range.

He said that the establishment had no role in the killing of Arshad Sharif. “People behind this conspiracy want bloodshed in Pakistan,” he claimed.

“Influential persons who are behind this conspiracy are not far away from me,” he said, adding that he had recorded the names of the conspirators in a video.

“If anything bad happens to me, they will be responsible,” Vawda said, adding that he will expose the names of some people in the coming days.

Arshad Sharif was shot dead by Kenyan police in what they claimed was a case of “mistaken identity” some kilometers away from the capital city on Sunday night, while he was returning from Magadi Town.

Sharif moved out of Pakistan in August after a sedition case was filed against him over controversial remarks made by PTI leader Shahbaz Gill in his programme on a private news channel.