Islamabad, Pakistan

Five children of a man who fled to Pakistan with his wife and brother before his 10-year-old daughter was found dead at their home in Britain were recovered by the Pakistani police during a search operation, on Monday (September 11). This comes nearly a week after the girl, Sara Sharif’s father Urfan Sharif, 41, and her stepmother Beinash Batool, 29 released a video claiming they are willing to cooperate with British authorities.

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Sara was found dead at her home in the southern United Kingdom town of Woking, Surrey on August 10  – a day after the couple fled Britain – since then the Surrey Police have been after the girl’s parents in relation to a murder investigation. 

A post-mortem test revealed that the 10-year-old had sustained “multiple and extensive injuries” over a “sustained and extended” period of time. 

How were the children found?

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On Monday, Pakistani police recovered the five children from Urfan’s father, Muhammad Sharif’s home, in the northern city of Jhelum in Pakistan. 

Last month, Urfan arrived in Pakistan and called 999 in the UK to report that his daughter was dead at his home in Woking after which the couple, five other children, aged between one and 13, and his brother, Faisal Malik, 28, went underground, until today. 

The 10-year-old’s grandfather told the BBC that the five children who had come to Pakistan with Sara’s father had been taken by police.

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Nasir Mehmood Bajwa, a district police officer in Pakistan confirmed this and said, “Police with a heavy contingent on Monday evening raided Sharif’s residence in Jhelum and recovered five children. They are healthy and in good condition,” as quoted by the Guardian. 

A BBC report citing a neighbour said, “Police officers, including female officers, raided the house. They broke the CCTV at the entrance and entered it. While inside, more officers arrived outside and stopped the traffic. They stopped everyone from filming on their mobile phones.”

Muhammad said he had been hiding the children in his home in Jhelum since their arrival on August 10. “Since they came from the UK, I didn’t let them go,” Sara’s grandfather told the BBC. 

“I told Urfan and Beinash that they can go wherever they want to, but I will not let the children go with you. Until today, no one had asked me about the children,” he added. 

He also said that the officials up until Monday had been asking only about Urfan, Faisal and Beinash but not the children and has repeatedly denied being in touch with his son and the family. 

Muhammad earlier told AFP that the couple stayed at the family’s Kashmir home for two days when they arrived in Pakistan. “The Pakistani police have been harassing us for the past three weeks,” the 68-year-old told the news agency. 

Jhelum police chief told the BBC the allegations of harassment and torture of family members are false.

Surrey Police to step in?

The Surrey Police, in a statement, on Monday said that they were aware that children had been found by Pakistani officers and are working with Surrey County Council and international partners, including the Interpol to figure out what to do next. 

Police believe the trio fled to Pakistan before Sara’s body was found after her father made an emergency call shortly after landing in Islamabad, to take refuge with family members there.  

(With inputs from agencies)

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