Extended family members of Sara Sharif are being questioned by police in Pakistan over the 10-year-old’s death, as her father and his partner remain in hiding.
Sara’s father, Urfan Sharif, 41, and his partner Beinash Batool, 29, fled the UK for Pakistan the day before Sara was found dead and alone at the family home in Woking, Surrey, in August.
Urfan’s father, Muhammad Sharif, and Urfan’s brothers and cousins have been detained, according to a police spokesperson in Jehlum, 108 miles north-west of Lahore.
The spokesman said 10 close relatives had been taken into custody for questioning and an investigation.
Police in Pakistan often detain the close relatives of wanted suspects. However, they are not kept in jail to avoid the intervention of a court.
Sara’s body was found at her home on 10 August, hours after her father and stepmother had booked urgent flights to Pakistan. Urfan then phoned 999 after he arrived in the country.
A postmortem found the girl had suffered “multiple and extensive injuries” over a “sustained and extended” period of time.
On Wednesday, Sara’s stepmother spoke publicly for the first time since the girl was found dead.
In a clip of the footage posted online by Sky, Batool showed no emotion as she described Sara’s death as “an incident” and said that she and Sharif were willing to cooperate with UK authorities over the case.
Urfan Sharif and Batool left Britain with five children aged between one and 13, and Surrey police want to question them over Sara’s death.
Muhammed Sharif said he had previously told Urfan, his son, to hand himself over to authorities.
Sara’s mother, Olga Sharif, gave an interview to the Polish TV programme Uwaga! in which she spoke of the harrowing experience of going to view her daughter’s body.
She said: “One of her cheeks was swollen and the other side was bruised. Even now, when I close my eyes I can see what my baby looked like.”
Olga Sharif separated from her husband in 2015 and Sara and her older brother had been living with her until 2019, when the family court ruled they should live with their father.
She still had equal rights to see the children and said that was easy to maintain initially but became increasingly harder over time.
Sara’s grandfather has told the BBC the girl’s death was an “accident” and three family members who left the UK for Pakistan will “ultimately” return to face police questioning.
Muhammad Sharif said he saw Sara’s father soon after he arrived in the city of Jhelum, in the south Asian country, and said his son had fled the UK out of “fear”.
Surrey police are appealing for information to help them gain a picture of Sara’s life.
