Celebrity chef Parveen Ashraf speaks out publicly for first time after husband of 38 years shot in cold blood in front of son in Ghana

By SOPHIE CARLIN, REPORTER and TOM HUSSEY Published: 10:03, 19 July 2026 | Updated: 10:26, 19 July 2026 Celebrity chef Parveen Ashraf shocked fans this week when she made a surprise return to social media, after around ten months, to share some devastating news.  In a tearful video posted to Instagram, the cook, 61, known as Parveen the Spice Queen, told her some 30,000 followers that her husband had passed away around six months ago.  'Hi everyone, it is Parveen the Spice Queen – but I am not even sure if I am still her,' said the ITV star, who is best known for her popular Sunday cooking show Parveen's Indian Kitchen. We can now reveal, in a horrifying twist, that her husband of 38 years, Qamar Ashraf, was in fact shot in cold blood in front of his son in Ghana. He was 68.  His family have now told the Daily Mail of their heartbreak at their devastating loss –which they are speaking about publicly for the first time.  Parveen, from Ilford, east London, was told over the phone her beloved husband had died. 'My son said, "It's dad. Dad was shot, he died". I don't think I believed it.'  What had begun as father-son catch-up drinks in the port city of Tema on November 7 ended in bloodshed and a saga which has left the family-of-four seeking answers for what they believe was much more than what Ghanian authorities dismissed as a phone robbery gone wrong.  'There have been huge mistakes in how my husband's murder was handled and reported and we want to set the record straight. The initial media reports said that the British Embassy were supporting the family,' Parveen said. She believes nothing could be further from the truth. Celebrity chef Parveen Ashraf shocked fans this week when she made a surprise return to social media (pictured), after around ten months, to share some devastating news In a tearful video posted to Instagram, the cook (left), 61, known as Parveen the Spice Queen, told her some 30,000 followers that her husband (right) had passed away around six months ago We can now reveal, in a horrifying twist, that her husband of 38 years, Qamar Ashraf, was in fact shot in cold blood in front of his son in Ghana. He was 68 Qamar Ashraf had enjoyed a successful career in the UK as a civil engineer. After working as the technical director of a brand new suburb in Peterborough, he moved to Ghana to work on large scale infrastructure projects such as hospitals and roads. In 2016 he was joined by Imran who worked both under him and on his own projects. Qamar would come home every few months, and in return, Parveen and the family would visit him in Ghana. 'It was a long distance relationship', Parveen says. But in a country rife with corruption, backroom deals and authorities on the take, Qamar knew that as a foreigner he was operating in a tricky business environment. Deals began to fall through, business was sometimes volatile and his family say he was not being paid for work he had done. His electrician son Cyrus, 28, says: 'It's Ghana, not the UK. They do things very differently there.' The family was last together for a holiday in Ghana in December 2023. Pictures show them smiling and hugging on the beach as they celebrated New Year. But in the months leading up to Qamar's death, his behaviour changed. 'There was something amiss, his behaviour was odd', recalls daughter Sherine, who works in finance, adding: 'He felt distant.' His family have now told the Daily Mail of their heartbreak at their devastating loss –which they are speaking about publicly for the first time. Pictured: Parveen, centre, at home with her family What had begun as father-son catch-up drinks in the port city of Tema on November 7 ended in bloodshed and a saga which has left the family-of-four seeking answers for what they believe was much more than what Ghanian authorities dismissed as a phone robbery gone wrong. Pictured: Qamar  'We didn't even believe it at first, I thought my husband was winding me up,' recalls Parveen. Pictured: L-R Qamar, Parveen, Sherine, Cyrus and Imran Ashraf  On November 7, Imran, who had been living and working in the capital Accra at the time, felt the urge to see his dad and agreed to meet at a local food and drink spot near the Community 9 Cemetery that same night. Recounting the evening at his family home in East London, he said: 'I went down there, he was sitting at his table in a quiet bar and there were two other ladies sitting there which I found strange as he normally doesn't allow people to sit at his table. They were the bar owner and her friend. We ordered some food, a drink, had a cigarette and started talking about business. 'He was unusually happy that evening, he said he quit his job, was sleeping more, not as stressed out, was looking forward to going traveling and seeing his family.' According to Imran's testimony, a single motorbike then pulled up to the table with two men in balaclavas. The pillion jumped off and held the group at gunpoint. 'He started saying, "Phones! Phones! Give me your phones!",' recalls Imran. He added: 'There were four of us at the table. He clearly had control over all four of us. I assumed the gun was real and loaded, I put my hands up but before I did that I hid my phone so he couldn't see it.' But in that moment, the robber proceeded to only take Qamar's phone and didn't appear to engage with anyone else, which to Imran seemed strange. He notes how the gunman hesitated during the encounter, maybe even panicked, and backed away as soon as he had the phone. 'He was backing away still pointing at us in case we made a move on him and when he was far enough away, he jumped on the bike and his partner drove off,' Imran said. At that point, no one had been harmed, but Qamar decided to jump out of his chair and run after the biker. 'I tried to grab him but I couldn't, he ran down the road chasing after the guy. I then chased after my dad,' Imran says. He added: 'A car was blocking my view, I didn't see the biker or my dad at the time I heard a shot fired, just one single shot. 'I went to my dad, he's on the floor, he's rolling around very slowly, I was trying to make eye contact with him, his eyes were glazing over but he knew it was me. 'He was trying to speak but he couldn't, he was gargling, I looked at his chest and saw a very small hole. I panicked, someone shouted to me to apply pressure so I did, but blood came spewing out.' Amid the chaos, a passerby bundled Qamar into a car and Imran jumped in his and sped to the hospital. To his shock, Imran found his dad curled up in the car at A&E with noone caring for him. He rushed him into the hospital but it was too late and he died in his son's arms. The apparent lack of any CCTV means testimony has only come from Imran and a handful of other witnesses. Pictured: Qamar   While grateful to how sensitively East London Coroner's Court handled Qamar's death, the family are bitterly disappointed by the Foreign Office's handling of the case. Pictured: L-R Qamar, Parveen, Sherine, Imran and Cyrus Ashraf 'There have been huge mistakes in how my husband's murder was handled and reported and we want to set the record straight,' said Parveen (pictured) The next morning Imran rang his brother Cyrus to deliver news no family should ever hear. 'We didn't even believe it at first, I thought my husband was winding me up', recalls Parveen. Parveen was soon on a flight to Ghana as she scrambled to get the body of her husband and the father of her children home to be buried. 'Getting him back to England was a huge ordeal. It is not easy to repatriate a body', she said. Cyrus performed the Islamic cleaning ritual of Ghusl and read him his father last rights. After weeks of delays, Qamar was laid to rest in Chadwell Heath Cemetery. Since burying their father, the family have been left trying to piece together what happened the night Qamar was murdered. The apparent lack of any CCTV means testimony has only come from Imran and a handful of other witnesses. Imran says: 'They didn't put witnesses in separate rooms. The reports say there were three bikes and six menyet I recall only seeing one bike and two men. I am angry they didn't do their jobs properly. 'Why was my dad shot in the chest when he could have been shot anywhere else? If you want to scare them off, you can shoot at the ground, you can shoot in the air, you can shoot at the leg.' He stresses again how he found it strange that the gunmen did not attempt to take anybody else phone phone the night his father was killed, despite having control over table and the people sitting at it. A close detective friend of the family noted that to fire a shot on a moving motorbike whilst spinning 180 degrees at nighttime, and shoot someone directly in the heart is a very tough shot to make. Ghanaian police, for their part, claimed six gang members killed in a shootout with police several months later were the suspects in Qamar's murder and closed the case. While grateful to how sensitively East London Coroner's Court handled Qamar's death, the family are bitterly disappointed by the Foreign Office's handling of the case. 'The Foreign Office and the embassy were absolutely useless. The British embassy in Ghana did nothing,' says Sherine. Though the family accepts that Ghanaian authorities made it virtually impossible for UK authorities to carry out an on-the-ground investigation, they feel the FCDO could have explored the case further and too easily accepted the Ghanaian authorities' line that Qamar's murder was a robbery gone wrong. For now, the Ashrafs spend their days trying to come to terms with the violence that met their 'loyal and amazing' dad in his final moments, while also grappling with the injustice of how Qamar's case was handled, leaving so many questions unanswered. 'He was an amazing person, super intelligent, very hardworking, fantastic father and husband and for us it is a huge loss to come to terms especially with the way it happened,' Parveen says.   Struggling to hold back tears, she adds: 'If I had one message to people reading this: Please just don’t go there without doing thorough research and be cautious. Ghana took my husbands life. An FCDO Spokesperson said: 'We are supporting the family of a British national who died in Ghana and are in contact with the local authorities.'