Pakistani police arrest 3 people sought in death of 10-year-old girl near London, send them to UK

Pakistani police say they have arrested three people sought in connection with the death of a 10-year-old girl near London and have flown them to Britain

Pakistan Britain Dead Girl (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Three people sought in connection with the death of a 10-year-old girl near London have been arrested in Pakistan and flown to Britain, police said Wednesday.

Sara Sharif was found dead with extensive injuries at her home in Woking on the southern outskirts of London on Aug. 10. British police identified her father Urfan Sharif, his wife Beinash Batool, and his brother Faisal Malik as people they wanted to speak to in the investigation.

The three flew to Pakistan on Aug. 9, with the couple going into hiding in central Pakistan and police launching a manhunt.

Sialkot police spokesperson Khan Mudassir confirmed the arrests. He said the three were handed over to the Federal Investigation Agency, which flew them to Britain from Sialkot in eastern Punjab province. He gave no further details.

An autopsy of the girl didn’t establish a cause of death but showed that she had suffered “multiple and extensive injuries, which are likely to have been caused over a sustained and extended period of time,” British police said in an earlier statement.

The girl's five siblings, ranging in age from 1 to 13, were recovered by Pakistan police on Monday evening from Urfan Sharif’s family home in central Pakistan. A court ordered the children to be placed in the custody of the Child Protection Bureau in Rawalpindi city, close to Islamabad.

Police had detained 10 relatives of Urfan Sharif, including his father, brothers and cousins, for interrogation in an attempt to pressure the couple to surrender.