Pakistan police recover body of missing Singapore model

ISLAMABAD - A model and beauty queen from Singapore who went missing in Pakistan has been found dead in a ditch on the edge of Islamabad, police said Tuesday.

Fehmina Chaudhry, 27, a Singapore-based model originally from the Pakistani port city of Karachi, went missing last Thursday while visiting Islamabad to buy property, police said.

"Police arrested the real estate broker and after interrogation, he told officers that he had murdered the model and dumped her body in a stream at the outskirts of the city," Islamabad police spokesman Muhammad Naeem told AFP.

Her promoter in Pakistan, Asif Hashmi confirmed Chaudhry's death, and said she was married with a son and a daughter.

"She was a dedicated philanthropist and she was planning to set up a fashion school in Pakistan," Hashmi said, adding that she had won several beauty contests.

The officer leading the investigation, Yasir Afridi, said Chaudhry's mother had contacted her for the last time on the evening of October 10, after which she received a text message saying her daughter had been kidnapped.

"She used to visit Pakistan often to see her mother and was staying at a private hotel in Islamabad where she came to buy real estate for her mother," Yasir said.