Pakistani police are “close to locating” the family of a 10-year-old girl, whose death in Surrey earlier this month sparked an international manhunt, it has been reported.
The body of Sara Sharif was discovered at her home in Horsell, a village near Woking in Surrey, after British police were phoned by her father, Urfan Sharif, from Pakistan on 10 August.
She had suffered “multiple and extensive injuries”, which a postmortem examination revealed were “likely to have been caused over a sustained and extended period of time”. Surrey county council has also said Sara was previously known to authorities.
Sharif, 41, his partner, Beinash Batool, 29, and his brother, Faisal Malik, 28, are thought to have travelled to Islamabad on 9 August and are wanted for questioning.
Syed Khurram Ali, the Rawalpindi region police chief, told the Mirror the force was trying its “level best” to find Sharif, Batool and Malik, and was “close to locating them”. He added that the force had interrogated the father, brother and uncle of Sharif.
Earlier this week, Sharif’s brother, Imran Sharif, claimed that Sara died after an accident at home. He is said to have told officers in Pakistan: “Beinash was home with the children. Sara fell down the stairs and broke her neck. Beinash panicked and phoned Urfan.”
Surrey police issued a new appeal for information to help them piece together a picture of Sara’s lifestyle prior to her death.
Det Supt Mark Chapman, from the Surrey police and Sussex police major crime team, said: “It is now two weeks since Sara’s body was found and the impact of her tragic death continues to be felt deeply by the local and wider community, including our officers and staff.
“We would like to thank those people who have already come forward and reported information to us.
“However, we know that there will be lots of people in the Woking community and beyond who will have had contact with Sara who may not already have come forward, and we would encourage them to do so.
“Any information is better than no information – although you might think it’s insignificant, it might be vital to the investigation and in helping us to bring justice for Sara.”
Members of the public with information are urged to report this to police online through the major incident public portal or by calling 101, quoting Operation Unison.
