Kastrati, an ethnic Albanian journalist for the Albanian-language daily Bota Sot, was shot on October 19 at around 8 p.m. in the village of Lausa, west of the provincial capital, Pristina, along with two other men who were riding in his car at the time. One of the passengers was killed, and the other was wounded.
Kastrati’s employer, the Geneva-based Bota Sot, supports politician Ibrahim Rugova and his leading ethnic Albanian party, the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo.
A second man killed in the attack, Besim Dajaku, was reported to have been a current or former bodyguard of Rugova. The third man injured in the attack, Gani Geci, was a former member of the now-disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army. According to local sources, Geci was believed to be the true target of the shooting, but the murder investigation is still open.