Lahore, 12 July

Pakistani model and actress Humaira Asghar, who was found dead early this week, was finally laid to rest here even as the police said on Saturday that prima facie no foul play was suspected in her death.

Only a few people attended her funeral in Model Town locality of Lahore on Friday evening. Earlier her family had refused to receive her body, disowning her for entering the showbiz.

The 32-year-old actress-model, who lived alone in Karachi, had acted in several television serials and two films.

Humaira, whose body was discovered in decomposed state earlier this week in an apartment in Karachi's upmarket Defence Housing Society, had died eight to 10 months ago, the initial post-mortem findings said.

The autopsy report was released to the police but the coroner could not determine the actor’s exact cause of death because of the level of decomposition. “We are awaiting the chemical examination and histopathological reports. However, it appears that no foul play was involved in this case,” police said on Saturday.

If any foul play is involved, an FIR would be filed and legal proceedings would be carried out accordingly, police added.

Meanwhile, the actress' family's refusal to take her body for burial caused an uproar on social media with several people and government institutions coming forward to offer to arrange the burial.

However, her brother Navid Asghar, who received the model's body after DNA matching, said the family had not refused to take the body. He admitted that the family had disowned her for joining showbiz against its wishes.

“The media’s focus was entirely on our family. It never highlighted other possible causes of death,” he said.

He said that Humaira was an “independent person” who would not visit the family for extended periods.

“She moved to Karachi and had been living there for the last seven years. She didn’t contact us for a year, although our mother would reach out to her some of the time,” he said and added Humaira's mobile phone had been switched off for the last six months.

Humaira was a graduate of National College of Arts. She performed in Ajoka and Rafi Peer Theatre in about 100 plays before moving to modeling. She also performed in some TV plays and two films.