08 March 2005	Tuesday	26 Muharram 1426

NEW YORK, March 7: The family of a Pakistani-American soldier killed while serving the American army in Iraq has complained that the US army officials are not responding to their appeal to send his body to Karachi for burial , according to news reports here.

Specialist Azhar Ali, 27, of Flushing, and Specialist Wai Phyo Lwin, of Myanmar origin, were killed on Wednesday when a roadside bomb went off as their Humvee was turning onto a bridge that crossed the airport road.

Mr Ali's brothers, living in Flushing, New York, reacted with disbelief to the knock at their door from military personnel whose mission was to tell them their brother had been dead.

They had spoken with him by cell phone only hours before he died. Mr Ali's parents had returned to Pakistan some years ago. A report in the New York Times said that Mr Ali's family said their dealings with the military since they learnt of their brother's death on Wednesday evening had been problematic.

Another brother of Mr Ali's, Zulfiqar, 33, said the family wanted his brother's body sent to Pakistan for burial. Zulfiqar said his family in Queens had told the military officials that under their tradition, Specialist Ali should have been buried within 24 hours of his death.

He said that late on Friday in Karachi, someone called and told his father to go to the United States Embassy to fill out some papers. But the caller also told him that the embassy was closing for the weekend and suggested that he went there on Monday.