Dawn Images

A brother of deceased actor and model Humaira Asghar Ali, whose body was found in an apartment in Karachi’s DHA, Phase-VI on Tuesday arrived in the city on Thursday to claim her body, South DIG Syed Asad Raza has said.

He said that Naveed Asghar, the brother, arrived from Lahore on Thursday, met South SSP Mahazoor Ali and Gizri SHO Farooq Ahmed Sanjrani and told the police that he wanted to take his sister’s body back to Lahore for burial.

The DIG said the police will hand over the remains of the body to the brother.

Police surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed told Images that all samples for chemical analysis, DNA profiling and cross matching were sent to ICCBS at the University of Karachi. She said blood samples from Ali’s brother were also taken for DNA matching on Thursday as the body was beyond recognition. Dr Syed said they have written in the autopsy report, which was issued to the police on Thursday, that the body was around eight to 10 months old. “There were no injury marks on the remains,” she said.

Earlier in the day, the Sindh culture department offered to arrange the burial if no member of Ali’s family came forward. The offer came after reports that her family refused to take the body for burial.

DIG Raza had told Dawn that the actor’s family lived in Lahore and when the police approached them they, particularly her father, refused to take the body for burial. Several actors also approached the police after this news broke, offering to take care of the burial.

On Thursday evening, Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori offered to assume full responsibility for the funeral and burial. “Should it be necessary, her funeral proceedings may be conducted at Sindh Governor House,” read a memo to the South police chief.

Regarding the investigation, the South police chief said they are waiting for the histopathological and chemical examination reports to ascertain the exact cause of death. He said that if any foul play is involved, the police will register an FIR and initiate legal proceedings.

Regarding information being shared on social media by a purported friend of the deceased, the DIG said the mobile phone number of the woman was off when the police made repeated attempts to contact her. He said no one has approached the police to this effect.

Ali’s body was recovered from a flat in Ittehad Commercial in Phase-VI. In a statement, the Gizri police identified the body as that of the 42-year-old actor and said she had died around two weeks prior to the discovery. Since then, the police have speculated that she may have died earlier than believed. The police now believe she died eight to 10 months ago.

Her body was found by a police team who broke in to the apartment to carry out a court-ordered eviction after rent was not paid for an extended period of time. It was reported to have been in a state of decomposition.