| schema:text
| - Fact Check: Pak TikToker Ayesha of 'Mera Dil Ye Pukare Aaja' fame DID NOT die of drug overdose
The Pakistani TikToker who died of an alleged drug overdose was not Ayesha Azhar. She was a different woman called Ayesha Hanif.
Listen to Story
India Today Fact Check
The TikToker who died was Ayesha Hanif from Karachi, not Ayesha Azhar. The latter is alive and lives in Lahore.
A few months ago, a video of a Pakistani woman called Ayesha Azhar dancing to a cover of the popular Bollywood song "Mera Dil Ye Pukare Aaja" at a wedding function went viral on social media. She gained overnight fame with her Instagram amassing more than five lakh followers.
Now, social media has been flooded with posts claiming that the social media personality died of a drug overdose at a party in Karachi, Pakistan. One such post, containing stills from her viral dance video, said, "Pakistani TikToker Ayesha Dies: Viral Star 'Mera Dil Ye Pukare' Dies of Drug Overdose."
Multiple websites including Latestly also published news stories about Azhar’s death.
India Today, in its investigation, found that Ayesha Azhar is not dead. A different TikTok artist called Ayesha Hanif reportedly succumbed to a drug overdose.
Our Probe
We first checked Azhar's Instagram account, "oyee_ayesha". Her most recent post was on June 27. On June 28, Azhar addressed rumours of her death on Instagram Stories.
She wrote, “For God's sake, you guys have no idea what kind of circumstances this ridiculous rumour may create in anyone's life. I have never sought attention or created any kind of hype, so why are you all trying to mess up my life?” She added, “Spreading false information without any regard for its consequences is not only irresponsible but also shows a lack of respect for the well-being of others. It should be stopped.”
India Today reached out to Azhar's manager Malik Shehryar, who confirmed that the 19-year-old from Lahore was alive and well.
So, who died?
According to Pakistani news outlets, Ayesha Hanif, also a TikTok artist, overdosed and died at a party in Karachi on the intervening night of June 23 and 24. Her body was later found abandoned at the Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre in Karachi.
Jibran, the man suspected to have left her body at the hospital, has been arrested. Jibran was allegedly involved in running a prostitution network in Karachi. Police also arrested a woman called Pinky and a man called Ali.
Quoting the police, an Express Tribune report said that the prime suspect in the case was UK-based businessman Sameer Wahid. He allegedly organised a party involving liquor, drugs, and dancing girls at a rented bungalow in Karachi. The deceased was invited to this party, and per the report, she was “drugged and abused” there.
Wahid reportedly arrived in Karachi from Dubai on June 19 and fled to London on the day of Hanif's death. Her father Sultan Hanif alleged that his daughter was pushed into drugs and dancing by her husband Adil. Hanif's husband and mother-in-law have been detained by the police. A postmortem report had not been made public at the time of writing this.
It was hence clear that the Pakistani TikToker who died in Karachi was not Ayesha Azhar of the “Mera Dil Ye Pukare Aaja” video fame.
Please share it on our at 73 7000 7000
You can also send us an email at factcheck@intoday.com
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)