Three members of the family of a 10-year-old girl who was found dead in southern England last month were arrested on murder charges on Wednesday as they arrived in the United Kingdom from Pakistan, where they had fled.
The child’s father, Urfan Sharif, a 41-year-old Pakistani-British man, his partner Beinash Batool, 29, and his brother Faisal Malik, 28, returned to British soil, which they had hastily left just over a month ago.
AFP
“Two men, aged 41 and 28, and a 29-year-old woman have been arrested on suspicion of murder,” police said upon arrival at London’s Gatwick Airport, without explicitly confirming their identities.
The three family members of Sarah Sharif, whose face has appeared repeatedly in the British media in recent weeks, had fled the day before the little girl’s body was discovered and sought refuge with relatives in Pakistan, sparking an international manhunt.
He was found at his family home in a village near Woking, a city in southern England, after a call from his father from Pakistan.
The autopsy revealed that she had suffered “numerous injuries” over a long period of time.
AFP
“We can confirm that the three suspects are on board a plane bound for the UK,” local police spokesman in Pakistan Mudassar Khan told AFP on Wednesday.
“They left voluntarily and are on an Emirates flight departing from the Punjabi city of Sialkot,” Raja Haq Nawaz, the lawyer for Urfan Sharif’s father, told AFP.
Last week the couple said they were willing to cooperate with British authorities.
“Sara’s death was an accident. “Our family in Pakistan is very affected by everything that happened,” Beinash Batool said in a two-and-a-half-minute amateur video sent to AFP by his family.
“We were afraid of being tortured or killed by the Pakistani police, so we decided to hide,” she argued. “We are finally ready to cooperate with the British authorities and plead in court.”
In these pictures, Urfan Sharif remained silent while his partner read the message.
Urfan’s father, Muhammad Sharif, 68, told AFP that the couple stayed at the family home in Kashmir (north) for two days after arriving from the United Kingdom.
“The Pakistani police have not stopped harassing us in the last three weeks,” he told AFP.
Police in Surrey, southern England, called this video “important,” adding that they would contact Interpol and British diplomacy to “determine next steps.”
“We remain absolutely committed to conducting a thorough investigation into Sara’s death,” she stressed, ensuring that the fate of Sara Sharif’s five brothers and sisters is a “priority.”
The latter, aged between one and 13 years, were the subject of a temporary detention order by the Pakistani courts after they were found alone in the house where the couple was hiding.
Olga Sharif, the child’s mother, told Polish television about the pain of losing her child and seeing her daughter’s lifeless body.
“One of his cheeks was swollen, the other had a bruise,” she described, “even now when I close my eyes I see what my baby looked like.”
The couple separated in 2015 and Sara and her older brother lived with her until the courts ruled in 2019 that they had to live with their father.