Pakistan pop star turned preacher among those feared dead in air crash

ISLAMABAD — Junaid Jamshed, a Pakistani pop star turned preacher, and his wife Aisha Junaid were on board an aircraft that crashed into a mountainside on Wednesday, an airline official said. Jamshed rocketed to fame in Pakistan in the 1980s and 1990s as the singer for the Vital Signs rock group, and later launched a solo career, with a string of chart-topping albums and hits. His name appeared on a passenger manifest for Pakistan International Airlines’ (PIA) flight PK661, which crashed near the northern town of Havelian. His presence on board was confirmed by Sohail Ahmed, a PIA official in Chitral. Jamshed retired from music in 2001 and announced that he was devoting his life to Islam. PIA’s ATR-42 aircraft was scheduled to reach Islamabad but it lost contact with control tower. Captain Saleh Hayat was operating the flight. There were 40 passengers aboard the ill-fated craft.