Photo: Humaira Asghar Ali/Instagram
Humaira Asghar Ali (pic) was laid to rest in the Model Town Q Block graveyard in Lahore on Friday after a sparsely-attended funeral, days after her body was discovered at her apartment in Karachi.
The late actress’s remains were found in her rented apartment on Tuesday in DHA’s Ittehad Commercial by a police team executing a court-ordered eviction notice. The police believe she died eight to 10 months prior to the discovery of her body.
The autopsy report has been released to the police but the coroner could not determine the actress’s cause of death due to the level of decomposition. The authorities are awaiting the chemical examination and histopathological but have so far said they do not believe foul play was involved.
Initially, the police said that they had contacted Ali’s family who had refused to take her body for burial.
This caused an uproar on social media with several people and government institutions coming forward to offer to arrange the burial, including celebrities such as Yashma Gill and Sonya Hussyn as well as the Sindh culture department and Sindh governor.
On Thursday, Ali’s brother, Naveed Asghar, arrived in Karachi and took custody of her body, indicating his wishes to take it back to Lahore for burial.
He denied reports that the family had refused to claim her body and said, “The body was in police custody. The police had kept the body for investigation before calling us (the family) to claim it.”
He said that for the last three days, the family was in contact with Chhipa and the police, including Station House Officer Farooq Ahmed Sanjrani of the Gizri Police.
“According to the guidelines, we were [eventually] going to receive the body and perform the rites,” he told journalists.
As they await the histopathological and chemical examination reports, the police have said that if any foul play is involved, they will register an FIR and initiate legal proceedings. – Dawn/Asia News Network
