The journalist was shot and killed, days after filing a story about drug mafia. Sohail had just left the District Police Office (DPO) in Haripur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when he was shot at several times. He died at the scene. He was at the DPO filing an application for protection after receiving multiple death threats following his report on drug mafia in Pakistan.

According to the IFJ affiliate in the country, the Pakistani Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and local news outlets, members of the drug mafia killed Sohail in retaliation for his reporting.