Death of Jamil Fakhri’s son confirmed

Published: December 8, 2010

Renowned Pakistani actor Jamil Fakhri grieves upon receiving news about his son's death.

The Pakistani embassy in the US on Tuesday confirmed the death of the son of renowned actor Jamil Fakhri.

Ali Ayaz Fakhri had gone missing in the US some 22 months ago. Jamil Fakhri had made repeated efforts to move the ministry of overseas Pakistanis and the foreign ministry but to no avail.

“The Pakistani embassy in the US got involved in the case five days ago when the media ran the news about my son,” a visibly shattered Jamil Fakhri complained while talking to the media at his residence in Lahore on Tuesday. “My son had no personal enmity with anyone. The embassy has yet to give me any information about the body,” he said.

Fakhri said the New York police have confirmed that his son Ali Ayaz was murdered and that the investigations are under way. “They would give us investigation details in writing about the incident and the culprits (behind the murder),” he added.

Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani informed Jamil Fakhri about the death of his son over telephone after receiving his DNA report. Haqqani, however, did not confirm whether Ali Ayaz was murdered or he had died as a result of an accident.

Earlier on Saturday, Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit had said that Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had taken notice of Fakhri’s missing son. Ali Ayaz Fakhri, 32, was living in America for the last 10 years. He had a masters in business education and was working as a taxi driver. Ali, who was divorced, was the eldest among Fakhri’s four sons. Another son of the actor is settled in Canada while the other two live in Lahore.

Some four days ago when Jamil Fakhri was asked why he took so long to reveal the news of his son going missing in the US he had said, “I was checking through my personal sources whether he was involved in any illegal activity.”

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8th, 2010.

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By Sami Abraham
WASHINGTON: Ali Ayaz Fakhri, the son of noted TV and stage artist Jamil Fakhri, did not die in an accident rather he was murdered by unknown people who cut his body into pieces before putting his car on fire, said a US investigating official on Tuesday.

This official, on condition of anonymity, said, “The full body of Ayaz Fakhri was never recovered but we assume that he was murdered. It is not clear what was the motive behind it and who committed this crime.” And the “investigation report on this murder is expected to be handed over to the Pakistan embassy soon,” the official added.

Ali Ayaz Fakhri, 36, mysteriously disappeared in February last year. Since then, nobody saw him and there was no information about his whereabouts. However, his car was recovered from upstate New York after a few days which was damaged completely, apparently due to the fire and no full body was recovered from the car.

An NYPD official, who is familiar with the investigation, told this correspondent that DNA of the body parts recovered from the car matched with DNA of Fakhri family, which led to the conclusion that Ayaz Fakhri was dead.

The official said that the US authorities remained in constant touch with the Pakistan embassy officials throughout the investigation.

A Pakistan embassy official said that all the information about investigation was shared with Jamil Fakhri. However, it was not possible to provide answers to all the questions, which Jamil asked during the course of investigation because the embassy did not have the answers.

But “we understand the pain and misery of Jamil Fakhri as father. We not only have sympathy with the Fakhri family but also pray that Allah give them courage to bear this irreparable loss,” the official added.

The official also said that Jamil Fakhri was informed immediately after officials of the NYPD told some embassy officials that apparently Ali Ayaz was murdered.