"One of her cheeks was swollen and the other side was bruised," she said in an interview on the Polish television channel TVN. "Even now, when I close my eyes I can see what my baby looked like." Tomorrow it will be a month since Sara's father, Urfan Sharif, called 999 and told police they would find his daughter dead in his home at Horsell, near Woking, Surrey. Sara had suffered "multiple and extensive injuries" over a "sustained and extended" period, a pathologist found.
A day earlier, Sharif, 41, had boarded a flight to Pakistan with Sara's stepmother, Beinash Batool, 29, his five other children aged between one and 13, and his brother, Faisal Malik, 28. Despite an international manhunt to bring them in for questioning, they still remain at large.
Sara was taken out of school in April to be homeschooled by Batool and was known to social services.
There are likely to be questions about what could have been done to prevent her death and a multiagency rapid review is under way.
Police in Pakistan are understood to be under pressure from the UK to find the fugitives. A new high commissioner, Jane Marriott, is said to be pushing them regularly for results. Officers in Jhelum, where Sharif's relatives live, plan to offer a reward for their whereabouts and to circulate "wanted" posters. Surrey police are also appealing for information to help them piece together a picture of Sara's life.
This story is from the September 09, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the September 09, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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