Police have dug up the body of a mum-of-four whose Bradfordian husband is being held by the Pakistan law enforcement on suspicion of her murder.
Rashid Ashraf is accused of murdering his wife and staging a car crash to try to depict an accident.
31-year-old Sara Rani’s body was being exhumed yesterday after her family protested to the police that her death was not “accidental”.
The post-mortem examination is alleged to have discovered bruises on her body which suggest she had been beaten and strangled.
Mr Ashraf, who is in his 30s, of Girlington and his uncle Aslam Chaudury were arrested last weekend in Muaffarabad as police stepped up their investigation.
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The couple are believed to have a four-month-old child and Mrs Rani is said to have three other children from a previous relationship.
A source told the local paper, the Telegraph & Argus (T&A) that police were looking into claims that Mrs Rani who also resides in Bradford, had been beaten to death and strangled on August 29.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has confirmed that Mrs Rani had died in Pakistan and arrests were made.
A FCO spokesman said: “We were notified of the death of a British national, Sarah Rani, in Pakistan on August 30. We are providing consular assistance to the family at this difficult time.”
It is understood that the concerns was raised after Mrs Rani’s body was returned to her family and that while they were bathing (ghusl) the body as part of an Islamic ritual, they noticed marks on her neck.
The source told the T&A: “The girl’s family raised the alarm and told police they suspected something else. They said that if there was an accident, how did she get marks on her neck?
“One of the doctors who gave the death certificate also apparently had concerns but in Pakistan, unless the police asks for a post-mortem, there is not one done. After burial, police applied to the courts there to dig up the body and do a post-mortem.”
Mrs Rani apparently travelled from Bradford to Pakistan, via Dubai, arriving on August 27.
It has been reported in Pakistan that she was killed two days later near the Dina-Jhelum bypass road.
It is understood that Mr Ashraf has been accused by police of deliberately damaging the vehicle they were travelling in to try to justify the cause of his wife’s death.
Mrs Rani has been described as a naturalised British citizen, originally from Islamgarh, Mirpur, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), who had recently married Rashid Ashraf, also from Mirpur and a naturalised British citizen.
