LONDON: The ongoing trial surrounding the death of 10-year-old Sara Sharif has thrown up disturbing evidence about a pattern of abuse, allegedly inflicted upon the child by her father, stepmother, and uncle.

Prosecutors contend that Sara’s death in Woking, Surrey, on Aug 8 last year was the tragic culmination of a campaign of abuse and neglect.

During Thursday’s session, the jury heard details from a series of messages exchanged between Sara’s stepmother Beinash Batool and her sister between 2020 and 2023.

Batool is reported to have cited Sara’s “naughty behaviour” as the reason for the punishments, even attributing her defiance to a supernatural force, telling her sister “she’s got a jinn in her”.

In various messages, Batool depicted her husband Urfan as prone to violent outbursts and shared accounts of him punishing Sara in ways that included all-night sit-ups, verbal threats and physical beatings.

She claimed Sara had cut up his clothes, hidden keys, and torn documents, all acts which were described as “rebellious” and indicative of her so-called “bad behaviour”.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2024

Opinion

Editorial

A year later
Updated 08 Feb, 2025

A year later

A war of egos has been fought between a handful of individuals at the cost of the well-being of millions of ordinary Pakistanis.
Wheat decision
08 Feb, 2025

Wheat decision

THE federal decision to stop setting the minimum support price for wheat and cease the staple’s procurement...
Dhanmondi attack
08 Feb, 2025

Dhanmondi attack

HISTORY has shown that unless states deliver development and equal rights to all, disenfranchised people can target...
Depopulating Gaza
Updated 07 Feb, 2025

Depopulating Gaza

The least feasible "solution" is the Trumpian plan for Gaza’s ethnic cleansing and occupation, which is a non-starter.
‘Pause’ in US aid
07 Feb, 2025

‘Pause’ in US aid

THE impact of the Trump administration’s decision to ‘pause’ all US foreign aid programmes, especially those...
Mobilising opposition
07 Feb, 2025

Mobilising opposition

POLITICS makes strange bedfellows. There has not, for quite some time, been a guest list as intriguing as the one...