KARACHI: Actor and model Humaira Asghar Ali has been found dead in her apartment located in the Ittehad Commercial area of Defence Phase 6, police confirmed on Tuesday.
According to officials, Humaira had been living alone in the flat for the last seven years. Police said they reached the location at around 3:15 in the afternoon to carry out a court-ordered eviction due to a rent dispute. When no one responded to repeated knocks, they broke the door and found her body lying on the floor.
The apartment owner had filed a legal case over unpaid rent, and a court-appointed bailiff had come to execute the eviction order. That’s when the body was discovered. Law enforcement officers collected forensic evidence from the scene, and her body was moved to a hospital for a post-mortem.
Police said the exact cause of death will be known after the autopsy, but early findings suggest that the body is likely “15 to 20 days old”.
Police surgeon Dr. Summaiya Syed confirmed the body was “decomposed” when it was brought to the hospital.
A neighbour told reporters that Humaira rarely spoke with others in the building and didn’t own a car. They also said the landlord had been saying for some time that she was not paying rent.
Humaira Asghar Ali had gained public attention through her appearance on the reality show Tamasha Ghar and also acted in the Pakistani film Jalaibee.
Her death follows closely on the heels of another tragic incident earlier this month when veteran actress Ayesha Khan, aged 84, was found dead in her flat in Karachi’s Gulshan-e-Iqbal area. In that case as well, the neighbours alerted the family after noticing a strong smell from the apartment.