The family of Urfan Sharif, who is on the run in Pakistan with his wife and brother after his 10-year-old daughter Sara was found dead in Surrey, are negotiating with local politicians for the fugitives to hand themselves in to the authorities.
It has been a month since Sharif arrived in Pakistan and called 999 in the UK to report that his daughter was dead at his home in Horsell, near Woking.
Sharif, 41, has been on the run since then, along with Sara’s stepmother, Beinash Batool, 29, his five other children, aged between one and 13, and his brother, Faisal Malik, 28.
A police official and Sharif’s father, Muhammad Sharif, confirmed that negotiations have been taking place for his relatives to come out of hiding and be handed over to the British authorities. They are said to be frightened of ill treatment if they are dealt with by police in Pakistan.
Muhammad Sharif, 68, said his son sent him a voice note earlier this week asking for advice and that he was persuading him to come forward. “I got in contact with Urfan earlier this week for the first time since his hiding,” Sharif senior said, speaking outside his home in Jhelum, Punjab province, where Urfan grew up.
“He contacted me through voice message. I urged him to surrender as we [the family] are unable to bear this pressure now. I asked him to defend your case in court of law and relieve us and we cannot bear the police pressure and more arrests.”
A police official close to the case said: “They are afraid of the police and we, with the help of influential and notable people, a few politicians, are persuading them to surrender and that they will not be harmed and will be presented before the court of the law.”
A Pakistani legal expert said that if the three fugitives did come forward, the breakthrough was likely to be presented as an arrest carried out by local police.
Ten of their relatives have been taken into custody for questioning and several of these have been held in secret locations for extended periods by police in Jhelum in order to force the runaways to come forward.
They are not put into formal custody to avoid the intervention of the courts, methods that were last week branded as “unconstitutional colonial tactics”. Police are understood to have now made further threats to go after the women in the family in order to try to increase the pressure.
Osama Malik, a criminal lawyer and expert in Pakistan’s legal system, said: “In Pakistani villages and small towns, politics is still based on patronage and clan loyalties. Local politically influential clan members usually get involved in negotiations between police and fugitives, as is the case in this saga that has been running for a month.”
Malik said Pakistani police are “notoriously known for torture and even extrajudicial killings, which are known as ‘encounters’ in local parlance. This reputation would likely make it difficult for Urfan and his family members to trust the police and surrender to them. Which is where the local strongmen and influentials come in. They are likely giving Urfan the surety that police will treat them according to the law and they will be immediately handed over to British authorities.”
Malik added: “It is very likely that due to the pressure of detention of their innocent family members and the backdoor negotiations being carried out that Urfan will soon surrender to Pakistani authorities. Pakistani police are likely to present the surrender as an arrest carried out by them.”
