Pakistan pop star turned cleric among those feared dead in air crash: official

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Junaid Jamshed, a Pakistani pop star turned evangelical Muslim cleric, was on board an aircraft that crashed into a mountainside on Wednesday, a airline official told Reuters. 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, joining the conservative Tableeghi Jamaat religious organization. (Reporting by Asad Hashim; Editing by Robert Birsel)