Sara Sharif murder inquiry: Searches continue for father of 10-year-oldon August 19, 2023 at 4:32 pm

Police in Pakistan say they are continuing to search for the father of a 10-year-old girl who was found dead in a house in Surrey.

Sara Sharif’s body was found at her family home in Woking, in the early hours of 10 August.

Surrey Police have confirmed they want to speak to Urfan Sharif, along with his partner and brother.

BBC News has been told two police teams in Jhelum, north Punjab in Pakistan, are looking for Mr Sharif.

Mr Nasir Mehmood Bajwa, in Jhelum, told the BBC that after police find Mr Sharif they are likely to take him into custody after receiving the go-ahead from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in Islamabad.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry and the FIA have not confirmed or shared any verbal or written orders on this case.

Mr Sharif, his partner Beinash Batool and his brother Faisal Malik all left the UK for Pakistan on 9 August, a day before Sara’s body was discovered.

Surrey Police have said Mr Sharif, 41, made a 999 call from Pakistan shortly after landing in Islamabad with his partner, his brother and five children, aged between one and 13.

The call led officers to the house in Woking where they found the body of Sara who had sustained “multiple and extensive injuries”, likely to have been caused over a sustained period of time.

BBC News spoke to a Woking travel agent who said he was contacted by Mr Sharif at about 22:00 BST on Tuesday 8 August, saying he wanted to book tickets to Pakistan as soon as possible.

He confirmed that eight one-way tickets – for Mr Sharif, his brother, his wife and five children – were used on a flight on 9 August that landed in Islamabad at about 05:30 local time, on Thursday 10 August.

When police discovered Sara’s body at the house in Woking no-one else was there, detectives confirmed.

Det Supt Mark Chapman, from Surrey Police and Sussex Police Major Crime Team, said: “While the post-mortem has not provided us with an established cause of death at this time, the fact that we now know that Sara had suffered multiple and extensive injuries over a sustained and extended period has significantly changed the nature of our investigation, and we have widened the timescale of the focus of our inquiry.”

Police are working with the Crown Prosecution Service, Interpol, the National Crime Agency and the Foreign Office to carry out their investigation and in liaising with Pakistani authorities.

There is no formal extradition treaty between the UK and Pakistan.

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