Sara Sharif’s father, stepmother and uncle have been arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the 10-year-old’s death.
Urfan Sharif, Beinash Batool and Faisal Malik were detained after they arrived at Gatwick Airport and disembarked from an Emirates flight from Pakistan, via Dubai just after 7.30pm yesterday.
They were taken to Guildford police station after their arrests.
Police confirmed two men, aged 41 and 28 and a 29-year-old woman were currently in custody.
Mr Sharif, Ms Batool and Mr Malik are believed to have travelled to Pakistan on 9 August and were being searched for by police in the country.
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(L-R) Sara Sharif, Urfan Sharif, Beinash Batool and Faisal Malik
Sara was found dead at her home in Woking, Surrey, on 10 August after a man identifying himself as her father called 999 from Pakistan.
A passenger on the flight told Sky News that police officers boarded the plane as soon as it landed and arrested the three suspects, who remained calm and complied with the officers’ instructions.
The passenger said the suspects were taken off the flight before anyone else.
The passenger told Sky News that police questioned a few people who had been sitting around the suspects on the plane, asking if they had tried to speak to them during the flight.
Officers also said that nobody was allowed to film.
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A plane carrying Sara Sharif’s family arrives in the UK
Mr Chapman said Sara’s mother had been informed of the arrests.
“Our thoughts remain with her and those affected by Sara’s death at this very difficult time,” he added.
“This has been an extremely fast-moving, challenging and complex enquiry and we remain absolutely committed to conducting a thorough investigation into Sara’s death.
“We will not be commenting any further at this point and will proe further updates as and when we are able to.”
In a shared last week with Sky News, Ms Batool described Sara’s death as an “incident”.
