LAHORE: Jhelum police have interrogated 10 to 15 relatives of Urfan Sharif, the father of Sara Sharif, a 10-year-old girl who was found dead under mysterious circumstances in her family home in Woking, Surrey last month.

Urfan and his wife, Beinash Batool — Sara’s stepmother — left the UK for Pakistan along with one other adult and five children on Aug 9, a day before Sara’s body was discovered by the police.

They have been evading capture since then, and the police teams are putting pressure on their relatives to close in on the suspects.

Syed Khurram Ali, Rawalpindi’s regional police officer (RPO), told Dawn on Saturday that police were carrying out an operation to arrest Urfan and Beinash.

Rawalpindi RPO says police interrogating relatives, ‘difficult to keep so many people hidden’

He said 10 to 15 relatives of Urfan Sharif were called for interrogation and to know about the whereabouts of the absconding couple. He said no one was arrested as they were not charged in any case and were allowed to go after questioning.

Mr Ali said the police were also conducting raids in different areas and would arrest the couple soon.

BBC News also reported on Saturday that a number of Urfan Sharif’s relatives were detained for questioning by police in Pakistan.

On Friday, Muhammad Sharif, Sara’s grandfather, told the BBC he had sent a message to his son Urfan Sharif to surrender himself to police “two to three days ago”.

“If they surrender to the police, it will mean the end of the problems that have happened to us,” Muhammad Sharif said.

He and his family have accused the police of harassing them, illegally detaining some members and raiding their homes. Muhammad Sharif has also accused the police of creating fake cases against them to add further pressure.

However, the Rawalpindi RPO denied this, telling the BBC: “We are putting pressure on them and it is difficult for them to keep so many people hidden. We are closing on their relatives, questioning them.”

Muhammad Sharif also previously told the BBC that Sara’s death was an accident and three family members who left the UK for Pakistan would “ultimately” return to face police questioning. “It was an accident, he didn’t tell me how it happened,” he said, adding that Urfan had left the UK out of fear.

On Wednesday, Beinash Batool, Sara’s stepmother, released a video message, the first public statement by the deceased minor’s immediate family.

The video, apparently recorded on a smartphone, shows Sara’s stepmother with her father Urfan Sharif beside her. Ms Batool claims the couple are willing to co-operate with UK authorities, and that their family is in hiding out of fear of torture by Pakistani police.

Reading from a notebook, she described Sara’s death as an “incident”, and alleged that police in Pakistan were harassing the couple’s extended family, illegally detaining them and raiding their homes.

Earlier, Sara’s uncle Imran Sharif also told police in Pakistan that the family line was that she fell at home. He is alleged to have told officers: “Beinash was home with the children. Sara fell down the stairs and broke her neck. Beinash panicked and phoned Urfan.”

However, contrary to Beinash and Urfan’s relatives’ claims to portray Sara’s death as an accident, Surrey Police said a post-mortem examination revealed Sara “suffered multiple and extensive injuries”, which they said were “likely to have been caused by a sustained and extended period of time”.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2023