ISLAMABAD/LAHORE, Dec 7: The Foreign Office believes that there are 'gaps' in reports about the death of son of renowned television actor Jamil Fakhri in the US and has directed the Pakistan embassy in Washington to seek clarification from the authorities there.
“There are obviously gaps in the report that Ali Ayaz Fakhri has been murdered and we have asked for explanation,” a senior official at the Foreign Office said on Tuesday.
Pakistan Ambassador to US Hussain Haqqani had called Jamil Fakhri to inform him that his son Ali Ayaz Fakhri was dead.
Ali Fakhri had been missing in the US since Feb 2009. During these 22 months, his father had been in contact with authorities in US and Pakistan to ascertain his son's whereabouts.
When he found nothing about his missing son, Mr Fakhri launched an appeal for information through the media.
Sources say the Foreign Office was intimated a few days ago that Ali Fakhri had died. Dissatisfied with the account of death, the Foreign Office asked the mission in Washington to get details from US investigators. But, while the report was being authenticated, Mr Hussain Haqqani informed Mr Fakhri about his son's death.
The information wanted by the Foreign Office pertained to DNA tests and burial – if the body had been laid to rest.
Pakistan embassy's spokesman Imran Gardezi said that details were still awaited.
“The FBI has been contacted and a final report is expected.” Ali Fakhri's death, he said, was being probed as a possible murder because his burnt car had been found some time back.
Meanwhile, Mr Fakhri has criticised Pakistan Embassy officials in Washington who gave him a cold shoulder whenever he called them with a request to locate his son.
He said the embassy moved only after he had approached the media five days ago. He appealed to Pakistanis not to send their children abroad.
He requested the government to help him to at least retrieve the body of his son. He also appealed to the US police to arrest the killers of his son.
A business graduate from the Punjab University, Ali Fakhri had moved to the US 10 years ago. Anwar Iqbal adds from Washington:
Police in New York found a torso which was identified as that of Ali Fakhri.
US officials and Pakistan Embassy told Dawn that the torso had been found in in New York's Suffolk county some time ago and was sent to a facility in Long Island where unidentified bodies are kept. The embassy, however, urged the US Federal Bureau of Investigation to do a DNA test on the torso, which concluded that it belonged to Ali Fakhri.
