Pakistani police are expected today to track down and arrest a British father who is on the run after his 10-year-old daughter was found dead at home.
Urfan Sharif, 41, his wife Beinash Batool, 29, and his brother Faisal Malik, 28, fled Britain a day before Sara Sharif’s body was found in Woking earlier this month.
Surrey Police, who have launched an international manhunt for the trio, say they are wanted for questioning over Sara’s murder.
Last night, a senior officer said they were closing in on the group as they continued the hunt around the family’s hometown of Jhelum.
It comes as the Mail on Sunday revealed Pakistani police are tracking a British father’s mobile phone SIM card.
Nasir Bajwa, the police chief in charge of the case, said, “By God’s will, we will make the arrest tomorrow night.”
Pakistani police are closing in on Sara Sharif’s ‘murdered’ father, Urfan Sharif (pictured), and are expected to apprehend him today
Ten-year-old Sara Sharif was found dead at her home in Woking earlier this month
He told the Sunday mirror that his team of agents working on the harrowing case is struggling because “a small child suffered a brutal death.”
Taxi driver Sharif and Batool, as well as Malik – who was living in Britain on a student visa – bought £5,000 worth of one-way tickets to Pakistan before fleeing.
They were accompanied by five children, aged between one and thirteen years.
Surrey Police said Sharif called them by dialing 999 from Pakistan, leading to detectives making the grim discovery at the family council house in the early hours of August 10.
Yesterday, their Pakistani counterparts announced they are closing in on Sharif, Batool and Malik after identifying an active Pakistani SIM card registered to Sharif.
The SIM card was recently used by someone in the sprawling city of Jhelum, which is about 110 kilometers from the capital, Islamabad.
Khurram Ali, a senior police official in Rawalpindi who is leading the nationwide manhunt for the three, said: “We have traced a mobile phone SIM card registered under the name of Urfan Sharif which is actively being used by someone in the country. Jhelum.’
Police searches for the three have centered on Jhelum, in the Punjab region, as Sharif’s wider family lives in the city.
Urfan Sharif, 41, his wife Beinash Batool (pictured left), 29, and his brother Faisal Malik (pictured right), 28, fled Britain a day before Sara’s body was found
Forensic police officers work at the house on Hammond Road, Horsell, Woking where Sara’s corpse was found
Flowers and tributes are laid outside Sara Sharif’s house after her death
The trio secretly visited one of Sharif’s brothers, Imran, on August 10, the very day the police discovered Sara’s body in Surrey.
Imran Sharif – a shopkeeper in the town who has since been questioned by police – said his two brothers and sister-in-law told him they had returned to attend the funeral of one of her relatives in Mirpur in the Kashmir region, and that they left shortly afterwards. then.
Police believe Sharif, Batool and Malik may be hiding in Jhelum, possibly aided by their relatives.
Nasir Bajwa, the chief of the district police in Jhelum, said last night that he was confident his troops would catch the three quickly.
He said, ‘We are very close to him (Sharif). I can’t give all the information, but we should apprehend him very soon, in a few days or so.’
He added: “We are coordinating operations in various places in and outside Jhelum, and will get hold of him shortly.”
Surrey Police said a post-mortem examination of Sara’s body failed to determine the cause of death.
But it revealed the little girl suffered “multiple and extensive injuries” that were “probably caused over a sustained and prolonged period.”
As a result, police have expanded their investigation and are now calling on the public to chart her life in the months and days leading up to her death.
Last week, the mother of a girl who attended school with Sara in nearby Byfleet revealed that Sara had dropped out of school a day after she was seen with cuts and bruises on her face.
The mother, identified only as Jessica, told the BBC that her daughter saw Sara at St Mary’s Primary School about four months ago with injuries to her face and neck.
Jessica said, “My daughter had asked what happened, and she said she fell off a bicycle and then ran away.
“The next day, the teacher announced that she had left school and was being homeschooled.”
Last week it was also reported that Sara was taken out of school by her parents after she was bullied by other students for wearing the hijab, the Islamic headdress.
Sharif’s relatives revealed that he has been married three times, first to a cousin in Pakistan.
But after arriving in Britain on a student visa about fifteen years ago, he divorced his first wife and married Sara’s mother, Polish Olga Domin, 36, with whom he also had an eldest son, aged 13.
After divorcing Olga, he married Beinash, who was born in Luton. They have had three children together.
Additional Reporting: Piriyaanga Thirunimalan