Pakistani police are expected to track down and arrest a fugitive British father today after his ten-year-old daughter was found dead at her home – as her grandfather pleads for his son to surrender.
Urfan Sharif, 41, his wife Beinash Batool, 29, and brother Faisal Malik, 28, fled the UK a day before Sara Sharif’s body was found in Woking earlier this month.
Surrey Police, who have launched an international manhunt for the trio, said they were wanted for questioning in relation to Sara’s murder.
Last night a senior officer said they were closing in on the group as they continued the hunt around the family’s hometown of Jhelum.
It comes as the Mail on Sunday revealed that Pakistani police are tracking down a mobile phone SIM card belonging to a British father.
Nasir Bajwa, the police chief in charge of the case, said: “With God’s will, we will make the arrest by tomorrow evening.
He told the sunday mirror that his team of officers working on this harrowing case are struggling because “a small child has met a brutal death”.
Meanwhile, Sharif’s father, Muhammad Sharif, 68, urged his son to cooperate with the police. He also revealed that his son did not tell him about Sara’s death when he briefly visited their family home in Punjab province.
“We want them to show up,” he told The Sunday Times. ‘We want to solve the as important as the privacy of our the house is affected due to frequent police raids.
Pakistani police are closing in on ‘murdered’ Sara Sharif’s father Urfan Sharif (pictured) and are expected to arrest him today
Ten-year-old Sara Sharif was found dead at her home in Woking earlier this month.
Taxi driver Sharif and Batool, along with Malik – who was living in the UK on a student visa – bought one-way tickets to Pakistan worth £5,000 before fleeing.
They were accompanied by five children aged between one and 13 years old.
Surrey Police say Sharif called them by dialing 999 from Pakistan, leading detectives to make the grim discovery at the Family Council headquarters in the early hours of August 10.
Yesterday, their Pakistani counterparts revealed they were closing in on Sharif, Batool and Malik, after identifying an active Pakistani SIM card registered in Sharif’s name.
The SIM card was recently used by someone in the sprawling town of Jhelum, located about 70 miles from the capital Islamabad.
Khurram Ali, a senior Rawalpindi police officer who is leading the nationwide manhunt for the three, said: “We have found a trace of a mobile phone SIM card registered under the name of Urfan Sharif and which is actively used by someone in Rawalpindi. Jelum.
Police searches for the three men have focused on Jhelum in the Punjab region, as Sharif’s extended family lives in the town.
Urfan Sharif, 41, his wife Beinash Batool (pictured left), 29, and brother Faisal Malik (pictured right), 28, fled the UK a day before Sara’s body was found .
Forensic officers working at the house in Hammond Road, Horsell, Woking, where Sara’s body was found
Flowers and tributes are laid outside Sara Sharif’s home after her death
The trio secretly visited one of Sharif’s brothers, Imran, on August 10, the same day police discovered Sara’s body in Surrey.
Imran Sharif – a shopkeeper in the town who has since been questioned by police – said his two brothers and sister-in-law told him they had returned to attend the funeral of one of his relatives in Mirpur, in the Kashmir region, and that they left soon after. After.
Police believe Sharif, Batool and Malik may be hiding in Jhelum, possibly with the help of their relatives.
Nasir Bajwa, the Jhelum district police chief, said last night he was confident his forces would arrest the three soon.
He said: “We are very close to him (Sharif). I can’t divulge all the information, but we would catch him very soon, in a few days.
He added, “We are coordinating operations at various locations inside and outside of Jhelum, and we will have it soon.”
Surrey Police said an autopsy of Sara’s body failed to establish the cause of death.
But he revealed the little girl suffered “multiple and extensive injuries” which were “probably caused over a sustained and prolonged period of time”.
As a result, police have expanded their investigation and are now appealing to the public to piece together his life in the months and days leading up to his death.
Last week the mother of a girl who was at school with Sara in nearby Byfleet revealed that Sara had stopped going to school a day after she was seen with cuts and bruises on her face.
The mother, identified only as Jessica, told the BBC her daughter saw Sara at St Mary’s Primary School around four months ago with injuries to her face and neck.
Jessica said: ‘My daughter had asked what happened and she said she fell off a bike and somehow rolled away.
“The next day the teacher announced that she had left school and would be home schooled.”
It was also reported last week that Sara was taken out of school by her parents after being bullied by other students for wearing the hijab, the Islamic head covering.
Sharif’s relatives revealed that he was married three times, first to a cousin in Pakistan.
But after arriving in the UK on a student visa around 15 years ago, he divorced his first wife and married Sara’s mother, Polish Olga Domin, 36, with whom he also had a son. eldest, 13 years old.
After divorcing Olga, he then married Luton-born Beinash. They had three children together.
Additional reporting: Piriyanga Thirunimalan
