A Pakistani judge has ordered the transfer to a child shelter of the five siblings of Sara Sharif, the 10-year-old girl brutally murdered in the United Kingdom. The Police took custody of the children this Monday in the city of Jhelum, where they were after having traveled with their father Ufan Sharif and their stepmother Beinash Batool from Woking, the British city where they lived and where their sister’s body was found last year. August 10.
The Pakistani police are tightening the siege around Ufan Sharif and Beinash Batool, considered suspects in the death of the girl, who could barely be recognized by her British mother, Olga. The autopsy confirmed her death from “multiple wounds and bruises.”
Sara Sharif’s five siblings, between one and thirteen years old, attended the court hearing dumbfounded, accompanied by several family members and police officers. The older ones apparently comforted the younger ones. They were moved from room to room, comforted with soft drinks and food, until a family judge finally decided to temporarily transfer them to a government-run child shelter.
Their father Urfan Sharif and stepmother Beinash Batool are meanwhile still missing, as is the children’s uncle, Faisal Malik, who also traveled with them from the United Kingdom. The police found the children at the home of their grandfather in Jhelum, Muhamad Sharif, who accused the police of having carried out a violent assault on the family home and causing the children to cry while saying: “We don’t want to leave.”
Muhamad Sharif, who had previously denied having been in contact with his fugitive son, claims to be unaware of his whereabouts. The Jehlum Police continued to search family homes in the city, a hundred kilometers south of Islamabad, in search of the couple, who in a video released last week alleged that little Sara had died in an “accident” (their lifeless body was found by the Police a day after his family left the United Kingdom).
Surrey Police have meanwhile reported that they are working closely with Interpol, the Foreign Office and the Commonwealth of Nations to determine next steps. “The well-being of the five children is the top priority for us,” read a statement from the local police, which confirmed the intense search for the three missing adults as part of the criminal investigation.