Details in trial for murder of British-Pakistani girl shock UK

Details in trial for murder of British-Pakistani girl shock UK
An undated handout photo released by Surrey Police in London on September 22, 2023 shows Sara Sharif, who was found dead in Woking, southwest of London, on August 10. (SURREY POLICE via AFP/File)
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Updated 01 November 2024
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Details in trial for murder of British-Pakistani girl shock UK

Details in trial for murder of British-Pakistani girl shock UK
  • Sara Sharif, 10, was found dead in bed with fractured bones, bites and burn marks
  • Her father, step-mother and uncle have been put on trial for murder since mid-October

LONDON: The trial of three family members accused of murdering a 10-year-old British-Pakistani girl has shocked the UK, as details of the horrific abuse she endured have emerged in court.
Sara Sharif was found dead in bed — with fractured bones, bites and burn marks throughout her body — at her family’s home in Woking, southern England, in August 2023.
The discovery sparked an international manhunt for the relatives accused of the killing, after they had fled to Pakistan the previous day along with five of Sara’s siblings.
Her father, 42-year-old taxi driver Urfan Sharif, step-mother Beinash Batool, 30, and uncle Faisal Malik, 29, returned to Britain the following month and have been on trial since mid-October. They deny the charges.
London’s Old Bailey court has heard how Sara had 25 fractures, including the hyoid bone in the neck.
Pathologist and bone specialist Anthony Freemont told the jury he had concluded that was the result of “neck compression” most commonly caused by “manual strangulation.”
The youngster had dozens of bruises, including bite marks, while her DNA as well as that of her father and uncle were detected on a cricket bat and both ends of a belt.
Sara’s blood was found inside a carrier bag believed to have been put over her head, while blood and hairs were detected on a piece of brown tape.
Jurors heard Friday that Batool was the only defendant who had refused to provide dental impressions of her teeth.
The court had previously learned of WhatsApp messages she had sent her sister over several years in which she reported that Sharif had hit Sara for being “rude and rebellious.”




This combination of pictures created on September 13, 2023 shows undated handout photos released by Surrey Police in London on September 6, 2023, of Urfan Sharif (L), Beinash Batool, and Faisal Malik. Urfan Sharif, the British-Pakistani father of 10-year-old Sara Sharif, who was found dead at her home in England last month. (Photo courtesy: SURREY POLICE via AFP)

“She’s covered in bruises, literally beaten black,” one message stated.
“She’s got a jinn in her,” Batool had added, referring to genie-like supernatural beings from mythology.
Prosecutor William Emlyn Jones revealed Friday that four months before her death, Sharif had told Sara’s school that she would be homeschooled “with immediate effect.”
Around the same time the family relocated the short distance from the town of West Byfleet to Woking.
By then, teachers had noted bruising on her body, in June 2022 and March 2023.
Asked about the injuries, Sara had not wanted to answer and hid her head in her arms, the court has heard.
Giving evidence earlier in the trial, teacher Helen Simmons described her as a “happy child,” who at times would be “sassy.”
Simmons recounted how she twice saw bruises on her face, and when the girl had not given a consistent account of her injuries the school had made a referral to watchdog services.
That had prompted Batool to confront her at the school two weeks later and claim the marks had been made by a pen, jurors have heard.
Meanwhile neighbors regularly heard shouting, commotions and crying.
Rebecca Spencer, who lived below the family, said she would hear Batool “screaming.”
“I would hear the stepmother shout at Sara,” she testified.
Spencer also said she heard noises that sounded like someone “locked in a bedroom,” with “the constant rattling of the door” as they were “trying to get it open.”
Sitting in court behind plexiglass, the three defendants listened Friday morning with their heads bowed.
Sharif — a short, thin man with hard features — looked up to watch clips of their arrests at Gatwick Airport in September 2023 being shown to jurors.
In the footage from arresting officers’ body-cameras, Batool raised her hand and said: “I think you are looking for us.”
The day after fleeing Britain a month earlier, Sharif had called UK police from Pakistan to explain that he had “legally punish(ed) my daughter and she died.”
“I beat her, I didn’t want to kill her but I beat her too much,” he added, claiming she had been “naughty.”
Police found Sara’s body on a bunk bed covered with a sheet, alongside a note in which her father claimed he had not intended to kill her but wrote: “I lost it.”
The trial continues next week.


Pakistan’s KP to deploy law enforcers in Kurram as sectarian clashes kill 63

Pakistan’s KP to deploy law enforcers in Kurram as sectarian clashes kill 63
Updated 27 November 2024
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Pakistan’s KP to deploy law enforcers in Kurram as sectarian clashes kill 63

Pakistan’s KP to deploy law enforcers in Kurram as sectarian clashes kill 63
  • Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government says negotiations underway between warring Kurram tribes
  • Kurram, tribal district bordering Afghanistan, has a long history of violent, sectarian clashes


PESHAWAR: Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government announced on Wednesday that law enforcement personnel will be deployed in the restive Kurram district to maintain law and order, where sectarian clashes over the past three days have killed at least 63 and injured over 150. 
Kurram, a former semi-autonomous tribal area bordering Afghanistan, has a long history of violent conflicts that have claimed hundreds of lives over the years. A major conflict in the district, triggered in 2007, lasted for years before being resolved by a jirga, or a council of tribal elders, in 2011.
The recent violence in the restive district erupted earlier this month when gunmen attacked a convoy carrying members of the minority Shiite community in the Uchat area of Lower Kurram, killing 41 people. A 10-day ceasefire announced by the KP government failed to hold as clashes between warring tribes continue.
“The process of negotiations are underway to resolve the issue peacefully,” an official handout by the chief minister’s office said about a meeting held by the CM Ali Amin Gandapur on the issue on Wednesday. 
“To maintain peace, contingents of law enforcement personnel will be deployed at important places,” the statement added. 
Participants of the meeting, which also featured the KP chief secretary and other senior officials, were briefed that a damages assessment was being conducted to compensate victims of the clashes. 
KP Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur said the government’s top priority was ensuring lasting peace in the district. 
“The provincial government will utilize all available resources for this purpose,” he said. 
Participants were also told that standard operating procedures were being finalized to ensure the safe travel of people in the district. 
The recent clashes in Kurram mark one of the deadliest incidents in the region in recent years, following outbreaks of sectarian violence in July and September that killed dozens.
Several hundred people demonstrated against the Kurram violence last week in Pakistan’s two largest cities, Lahore and Karachi, reflecting nationwide concern over the situation.


Pakistan reports fresh polio case from country’s northwest, taking 2024 tally to 56

Pakistan reports fresh polio case from country’s northwest, taking 2024 tally to 56
Updated 27 November 2024
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Pakistan reports fresh polio case from country’s northwest, taking 2024 tally to 56

Pakistan reports fresh polio case from country’s northwest, taking 2024 tally to 56
  • Male child contracts polio in northwestern Dera Ismail Khan district, confirm authorities
  • Pakistan is one of only two countries worldwide where poliovirus still remains endemic 

PESHAWAR: Pakistan reported another polio case from the country’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province on Wednesday, taking this year’s tally of the disease to 56 cases as Islamabad struggles in its efforts to contain the infection. 

Pakistan, along with neighboring Afghanistan, remains the last polio-endemic country in the world. The nation’s polio eradication campaign has faced serious problems with a spike in reported cases this year that have prompted officials to review their approach to stopping the crippling disease.

The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health (NIH) confirmed the detection of the 56th wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) case of the year, saying that a male child in the northwestern district of Dera Ismail Khan had contracted the disease. 

“This is the seventh polio case of the year from D.I. Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern KP,” the polio program said. 

Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province and KP have reported the highest number of polio cases this year, 26 and 15, respectively, while 13 have been reported from Sindh and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.

Poliovirus, which can cause crippling paralysis particularly in young children, is incurable and remains a threat to human health as long as it has not been eradicated. Immunization campaigns have succeeded in most countries and have come close in Pakistan, but persistent problems remain.

In the early 1990s, Pakistan reported around 20,000 cases annually but in 2018 the number dropped to eight cases. Six cases were reported in 2023 and only one in 2021.

Pakistan’s polio program began in 1994 but efforts to eradicate the virus have since been undermined by vaccine misinformation and opposition from some religious hard-liners, who say immunization is a foreign ploy to sterilize Muslim children or a cover for Western spies. Militant groups also frequently attack and kill members of polio vaccine teams. 


‘Not on our watch’: Pakistan PM says won’t let Imran Khan supporters ‘destroy’ economy

‘Not on our watch’: Pakistan PM says won’t let Imran Khan supporters ‘destroy’ economy
Updated 27 November 2024
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‘Not on our watch’: Pakistan PM says won’t let Imran Khan supporters ‘destroy’ economy

‘Not on our watch’: Pakistan PM says won’t let Imran Khan supporters ‘destroy’ economy
  • Thousands of Khan supporters protested in Pakistan’s capital on Tuesday, clashing with law enforcers 
  • Pakistan’s finance ministry says recent protests by Khan’s party cost country a whopping $684 million per day 

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday vowed not to let former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party “destroy” the country’s economic progress, lamenting that the recent protests in Islamabad had cost the national exchequer a whopping Rs190 billion ($684 million) per day. 

Thousands of supporters of Khan’s PTI entered Pakistan’s capital on Tuesday morning, braving teargas and arrests and crossing security barriers across the country. Pakistan’s government said clashes between Khan supporters, who were demanding the jailed former premier’s release from prison, left three Rangers personnel and one cop dead. The PTI says eight of its supporters were killed and “hundreds” were feared dead, a claim the government challenges. 

Khan supporters fled the capital after security forces launched a sweeping midnight raid on Tuesday. The party, however, has said its sit-in protest against the government will continue, without specifying where it will take place. 

“My heart cries tears of blood that after working so hard, we should let Pakistan be destroyed at the hands of such anarchists and enemies of the state? 

“It is not possible, it will not happen. Not in our time, not on our watch. It will not happen, god willing,” Sharif said. “Together we will take Pakistan out of this.”

Sharif cited the finance ministry’s statement which had earlier this week said Pakistan suffered losses of $684 million per day due to the protests. 

The prime minister urged the government to think about the future course of action regarding these protests, saying that it cannot be “business as usual.”

“We cannot let Pakistan be sacrificed under any circumstances,” Sharif said. “We will break the hand that wants to sacrifice Pakistan.”

The PTI’s protest took place during a three-day visit by the president of Belarus, who arrived in Islamabad with a 68-member delegation from his country, to take part in talks related to trade and investment. 

Khan, who was ousted from power in a parliamentary no-trust vote in 2022, has been in prison since last year. He faces a slew of charges from terrorism to corruption that he says are politically motivated to keep him in jail and away from politics. 

The charges kept Khan away from Feb. 8 general elections that his party says were rigged, an accusation denied by the election commission. 


Qatari ambassador discusses bilateral investment and ties with Sindh governor

Qatari ambassador discusses bilateral investment and ties with Sindh governor
Updated 27 November 2024
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Qatari ambassador discusses bilateral investment and ties with Sindh governor

Qatari ambassador discusses bilateral investment and ties with Sindh governor
  • Qatari envoy expressed interest in large-scale investments in Pakistan, particularly Karachi, says Sindh Governor
  • PM Shehbaz Sharif last month visited Qatar to boost foreign trade, investment to stabilize $350 billion economy

KARACHI: Qatar’s Ambassador to Pakistan Ali Mubarak Ali Essa Al-Khater met Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori on Wednesday to discuss ways to increase bilateral investment and foster stronger ties between the two countries, the Governor House said. 

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last month visited Qatar as he sought to bolster economic cooperation amid the country’s efforts to boost foreign investment and stabilize its frail $350 billion economy.

Islamabad and Doha have attempted to forge closer business ties over the past few months, with a Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) team also expected to visit Pakistan this month to set up an information technology (IT) park. 

Al-Khater called on Tessori at the Governor House in Karachi where the two held a detailed meeting to discuss investment and other matters. 

“The meeting focused on matters of mutual interest and fostering stronger bilateral ties,” the Governor House said. “During the visit, the Ambassador praised the Governor’s initiative and expressed Qatar’s desire to strengthen relations further with Pakistan, particularly in economic collaboration.”

Tessori spoke to reporters after the meeting, acknowledging that Qatar had always supported Pakistan. He added that Pakistanis harbored “immense affection for Qatar.”

“He shared that the Ambassador conveyed Qatar’s keen interest in large-scale investments in Pakistan, particularly in Karachi,” the statement said. 

Tessori highlighted that Qatar was interested in government-to-government investments and joint ventures with Pakistani businesses. 

The Sindh governor said Al-Khater assured him of local Qatari investors’ readiness to invest in Pakistan. 

“I will provide detailed insights into sectors that can yield immediate results for investments, ensuring that this partnership benefits both nations significantly,” Tessori said.

He emphasized that Qatar’s interest is particularly crucial given Pakistan’s current economic challenges. 

“We are committed to providing a conducive environment and guarantees for Qatari investors to achieve substantial returns,” Tessori said.  

Pakistan’s desire to forge closer economic ties with allies come amid its attempts to increase trade and foreign investment after the country narrowly escaped a default last year by securing a last-gasp $3 billion financial assistance package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).


Pakistan dispatches 21st aid consignment for Gaza, Lebanon and Syria

Pakistan dispatches 21st aid consignment for Gaza, Lebanon and Syria
Updated 27 November 2024
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Pakistan dispatches 21st aid consignment for Gaza, Lebanon and Syria

Pakistan dispatches 21st aid consignment for Gaza, Lebanon and Syria
  • Islamabad dispatches 17 tons of blankets, food, medicines to Damascus in Syria from Rawalpindi 
  • Israel’s military campaigns have killed over 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October last year

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Wednesday dispatched its 21st relief consignment for the war-affected people of Syria, Lebanon and Gaza who have suffered from Israeli military aggression in the Middle East. 

Israel has been attacking what it calls Iran-linked targets in Syria for years but has ramped up such raids since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel, leading Israel to launch a military campaign in which more than 44,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and more than 3,500 people in Lebanon.

On Tuesday, Israel approved a ceasefire agreement with Lebanon’s Hezbollah group that ended nearly 14 months of fighting linked to the war in Gaza. International aid agencies and the World Health Organization (WHO) have warned Israel’s military operations in Gaza have caused starvation and diseases for thousands of people in the area.

“On the directives of the Prime Minister of Pakistan, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) continues to provide humanitarian aid to the war-affected people of Gaza, Lebanon and Syria,” the NDMA said in a statement. 

The 21st consignment was dispatched from Pakistan’s eastern city of Rawalpindi to Syria. The relief items were sent with the help of the Pakistan Air Force, the NDMA said, adding that they comprised 17 tons of supplies which included blankets, food and medicines. 

The NDMA said Pakistan has dispatched a total of 1,273 tons of relief items to the war-affected people of Gaza, 372 tons to the people of Lebanon, and 111 tons to Syria. 
 “The Government of Pakistan continues to send relief supplies based on the needs of the war-affected populations of Lebanon and Palestine,” the authority said. 

Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza, Pakistan has repeatedly raised the issue at the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and other multilateral platforms and demanded international powers and bodies stop Israeli military actions in Gaza.