Individual recounts sheltering Sara Sharif’s family during global police search

In a narrow passage within a small village in eastern Pakistan, a man carrying an AK-47 assault rifle signals for our attention. We are there to meet an individual who claims he can explain how Sara Sharif’s family evaded law enforcement for over four weeks amidst an international police operation. He asserts that he provided them with refuge. For approximately one month, authorities sought the eight-member family, comprising Sara’s father Urfan Sharif, her stepmother Beinash Batool, and uncle Faisal Malik, along with her five siblings. They had traveled to Pakistan on 9 August 2023, the day before the battered and lifeless body of 10-year-old Sara was discovered in a bedroom at their residence in Woking, Surrey. Following an Interpol notice to locate Sharif, Batool, and Malik, police initiated a high-profile search for the family across Pakistan, deploying numerous teams. Rasikh Munir, a relative of Urfan Sharif’s, was suspected of assisting them. However, multiple raids on his property failed to yield the family’s whereabouts. The children were subsequently located at the home of another relative. Mr. Munir informed us that this event prompted Sharif, Batool, and Malik to decide to return to England, where their arrest finally occurred on 13 September 2023. The BBC has covered this narrative in Pakistan since the initial media