The father, mother and uncle of British girl Sara Sharif who was found dead in Woking on August 10, were handed over to the British authorities following thier arrest in Pakistan after a month-long manhunt.

Sources said that Urfan Sharif, Sara’s father, Beinash, stepmother, and Faisal Malik, Urfan’s brother were sent to Britain from Sialkot Internationa Airport on Wednesday.

The three members of the family were arrested Tuesday night - a day after a Jhelum court handed over Urfan’s five children to the Child Protection Bureau.

The children were found living with Urfan’s father.

Eariler, sources told Aaj News that the Jhelum district police chief (DPO) was going to hold a press conference to announce the arrests.

The trio had fled the UK with the children on August 10 soon after Sara Sharif died of ‘unnatural cause’.

After arriving in Urfan’s native town of Jhelum, they disappeared to avoid arrest and possible extradition to the UK.

The trio was arrested from Sialkot overnight and they were being interrogated at an undisclosed location — Sources

The sources said the trio was arrested from Sialkot, around 100 kilometres from Jhelum, on Tuesday night. They were being interrogated at an undisclosed location, said the sources.

For over a month they had been hiding from the authorities.

Negotiated surrender?

It is not clear immediately how the three were arrested.

British authorities seeking their arrest worked closely with the Pakistani police which raided the houses of Urfan’s father, brothers and other relatives in Jhelum.

British media reported that the family negotiated a surrender through local politicians with the police.

Both Urfan and Beinash had said that they were ready to cooperate with the authorities and join the investigation but feared that they would be subjected to torture by the Pakistani police.

Reports said that the police was expected to officially announce the arrests in a press conference later on Wednesday. The reports also said that the trio were questioned at an unknown location after they were detained.

Related:

Neighbours describe how Sara Sharif stopped going school and baby-sit her step brother

Sara Sharif death: Jhelum police arrest 10 members of Urfan Sharif’s family

Sarah Sharif’s stepmother expresses willingness to cooperate with UK authorities

British girl death: Sara’s father ‘willing to surrender’ to Pakistani police

The manhunt

Around a month ago, Sharif arrived in Pakistan and called 999 in the UK to report that his daughter was dead at his home in Horsell, near Woking. A post-mortem examination found she had suffered “multiple and extensive injuries” over a “sustained and extended” period of time.

While the UK authorities began an investigation, the trio along with five children were hiding in Pakistan.

Then, a video statement was sent to the BBC, in which Sarah’s father remained silent, but her stepmother, Beinash Batool claimed that the police were harassing the couple’s family, illegally detaining them, and raiding their house. The British publication stated that they were unable to verify the account.

In a two-minute 36-second-long video, Batool stated the reason behind their concealment being the fear that the Pakistani police will torture and kill them. However, the couple said they were willing to cooperate with UK police.

Background

Sara Sharif and her older brother, who is now 13, were born to Urfan and Polish woman Olga Domin.

The marriage ended in a divorce after Urfan tried to preach Islam to the children and Olga made them eat food that was deemed unIslamic by Urfan, according to a report by the British daily Times.

Urfan then contracted nikah with Beinash, whom the British press has described as Urfan’s ‘partner’ indicating that their Islamic marriage was not formalized in the UK.

Beinash’s family is from Mirpur in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Four more children were born to them including a one-year-old boy.

The family was living in Woking, Surrey, around 22 miles from London.

Urfan first arrived in the UK around 20 years ago and worked as a taxi driver.

More to follow…