Police in Pakistan are widening their search for the family of Sara Sharif, who have been on the run for weeks after the 10-year-old died at her house in Woking.
Detectives are searching two more areas in Pakistan, making it four areas in total, for Sara’s father Urfan Sharif, 41, his partner Beinash Batool, 29, and his brother Faisal Malik, 28, the BBC reports.
It comes as the inquest into Sara’s death opens at Woking Coroner’s Court on Tuesday.
An international manhunt for the trio has entered its third week as authorities in the UK and Pakistan jointly work on the murder investigation. Sara’s body was found on the morning of August 10 at a house on Hammond Road.
A post-mortem examination failed to establish an exact cause of death, with Surrey Police saying further tests were being carried out. It revealed that Sara had suffered multiple injuries, likely to have been caused over a sustained and extended period of time.
The search for Sara’s family has widened around the city of Jhelum, where Mr Sharif’s family live, after police in Pakistan received new information from multiple sources, according to the BBC.
Mr Sharif made a 999 call shortly after landing in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, which led Surrey Police to find Sara’s body, the BBC reported police as saying.
But one police inspector in Pakistan told the Telegraph that authorities are finding the trio are one step ahead of authorities, as they constantly change their location based on media reports.
Sardar Nisar Ahmed Khan, the spokesperson of the Regional Police Office Rawalpindi told the Telegraph: “The media is reporting minute by minute and I think they are changing the location through media reporting and they are monitoring the news to avoid the arrest. Police initiated several raids but got no breakthrough yet.”
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Sara’s grandfather Muhammad Sharif, 68, urged his son to hand himself in to police.
Muhammad Sharif said his son had briefly visited the family home in Jhelum earlier this month before he disappeared again. He said his son did not tell him about Sara’s death.
“We want them to present themselves,” he told the Sunday Times.
“We want them to resolve the matter as the privacy of our house is affected due to frequent police raids.”
Last week, a court in Pakistan ruled that relatives of Sara’s father cannot be detained by police for questioning, after two men related to Mr Sharif were questioned for days about his whereabouts, according to reports.
Surrey Police is continuing to appeal for information to help them piece together a picture of Sara’s lifestyle prior to her death.
Renewing the appeal last week, Detective Superintendent Mark Chapman, from the Surrey Police and Sussex Police Major Crime Team, said: “We would like to thank those people who have already come forward and reported information to us.
“However, we know that there will be lots of people in the Woking community and beyond who will have had contact with Sara who may not already have come forward, and we would encourage them to do so.
“Any information is better than no information – although you might think it’s insignificant, it might be vital to the investigation and in helping us to bring justice for Sara.”
Lawyers in the UK have said Pakistan’s government is unlikely to block an extradition request in connection to Sara’s death.
There is no formal extradition treaty between the UK and Pakistan but people have been returned from the Asian country before.
