The family of a British man who died in mysterious circumstances at a luxury hotel in Pakistan believe that he was murdered.
They are now calling on the police to publish a full report into his murder, saying that "justice must be done".
Farooq Ali's relatives on Saturday, January 29, held a vigil in Bradford, West Yorkshire, and following this have called for the UK government to "pressure" local authorities for answers.
This comes ten months after he was found dead in the Ramada by Wyndham hotel in Islamabad aged just 44, where he was staying there while working on a novel.
Tragically, the body of the scientists and aspiring author was lying in the plush hotel for up to five days, his family say.
Last seen on March 11, 2022, his body was later discovered in his room with “blood and foam” coming from his mouth.
His devastated family have now revealed that they "can’t get past" his tragic death, as they are urging British officials to put pressure on Pakistani authorities.
Heartbroken sisters Yasmin, 48, and Rehiana, 42, say they have been going through a “living nightmare”, and believe he may have been murdered.
Yasmin, a lawyer originally from Bradford, West Yorkshire said: “Rehiana and I have not had a chance to probably grieve. We’ve been thrown in from 16 march when we heard this, and it’s just been a living nightmare.
“I've said time and time again, they haven’t just killed Farooq. I think whoever did this has killed my family as well because we were very close.
“It feels like some limbs have been torn from you, and you can’t get past it."
She added that she and Rehiana last heard from Farooq on March 6 last year through an email he'd sent them.
Then on March 14, Rehiana noticed he hadn't paid a bill on the Halifax credit card they shared together. A few days later, she called hotel staff to check if he was ok.
Yasmin added: “On March 16, she couldn’t get hold of him.
"She’d woken up at 4 am and called the hotel reception. She just wanted confirmation that our brother was still there.
“They said, 'Yes, he’s here,' but nobody mentioned that he hadn’t ordered food for five or six days and he’s not been seen for five or six days.
“Seven hours later, she got a call, and they just said: 'Your brother is dead'."
Following the call, Yasmin flew out to Pakistan with her family.
Once there, they shockingly found found foam and blood around the aspiring author's mouth after inspecting his body.
She claimed local doctors first suggested he'd had a stroke, but Rehiana, a consultant neurologist, didn’t believe the cause of death made sense.
The family also went on to question why hotel staff had not checked on Farooq if his body had remained there, as they suspected.
Yasmin said they later exhumed Farooq's remains, and asked for pathologists in the UK to re-examine his body for signs of foul play and to determine a cause of death.
She said: “My brother had some blood oozing out of his mouth or his nose, congealed.
“And there was a high level of foam surrounding his mouth – loads and loads of foam covering all around his mouth, down to his beard. We saw that ourselves.
“Most of the pathologists we spoke to in the UK and Ireland who saw pictures of the foam, said there was too much foam for a natural death.
“And the only conclusion they could draw was that, effectively, it indicates poisoning. But obviously, nothing came up in the toxicology report after the exhumation.”
Months have been spent meeting with the police and even launching high court legal bids, Yasmin say, in the hopes that they would release a report into her brother's case.
Tragically she says that the authorities still haven’t filed the document with magistrates.
Therefore, Yasmin has now called on British officials to put pressure on Pakistani authorities, saying: “From the British government, what we need is their involvement at a high level, and I think they’ve got the leverage to do so, to put pressure on Pakistan to comply with basic law and order.
“Justice must be done for this family, like anybody else.
“At the end of the day, they need to be concerned with the fact that he was a British national.
“If we get silence from people who represent us, where we see home as Britain, then where do we stand?"
The Mirror have approached the Pakistani embassy in the UK and Ramada by Wyndham hotel group for a comment.
