(Photo: Wikipedia)

Thousands of people have attended the funeral in Islamabad of Pakistani television anchor Arshad Sharif, who was shot and killed under mysterious circumstances in Kenya on 23 October.

The funeral was held a day after Mr Sharif’s remains were flown home from Kenya, where he was shot while travelling with a companion in a vehicle on the Nairobi-Magadi highway, Al Jazeera reports.

Mr Sharif was among the top news anchors in Pakistan, with a vast following from a cross-section of society.

The Kenyan police have acknowledged the 49-year-old journalist was shot dead in what they called a case of “mistaken identity” and have expressed regret over the “unfortunate incident”.

A heavy police contingent was deployed at the mosque to oversee the crowd, which one Islamabad police official estimated ranged from 25,000 to 30,000 people.

Mr Sharif was the host of the programme Power Play on ARY News. He was once considered close to Pakistan’s military establishment and former Prime Minister Imran Khan but had recently become a staunch critic of the military.