A TAXI driver who left Britain for Thailand three weeks before his wife and three children were found dead in their home has been arrested on suspicion of their murder.
Rashid Arshad, who had been the subject of an international manhunt, agreed to give himself up and return to Britain after Thai authorities picked him up while he was trying to renew his visa. He was met by police at Heathrow yesterday morning and arrested as he stepped off the flight.
Mr Arshad’s wife, Uzma, 32, and their three children, Henna, 6, Abbas, 8, and Adam, 11, were found in the family’s home in Manchester on August 20. Police believe they died from head injuries and had lain undisturbed in the house for four weeks. The children were last seen on July 28, the final day of the school term.
Mr Arshad, 36, flew to Bangkok on July 29, abandoning his £27,000 silver BMW 320 sports coupé in the long-stay car park at Terminal 3. His white taxi was later recovered behind the family home.
Once in Thailand, Mr Arshad travelled south and crossed the border into Malaysia, but by the time he tried to re-enter Thailand on Wednesday Thai police had already been alerted by British police that he was wanted over the murders.
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Detective Superintendent Martin Bottomley, in charge of the inquiry, said: “At 7pm last night, Mr Arshad voluntarily boarded a Thai Airlines flight to Bangkok to return to the UK in order to assist us with our inquiries. He landed at Heathrow this morning.
“On leaving the plane, he was arrested on suspicion of the four murders and will be brought to Manchester later today, where he will be interviewed in relation to these offences. Uzma’s family have been kept fully aware of these developments.”
Friends of the family said that the couple’s arranged marriage was troubled and it is understood that Mrs Arshad had been making new friends outside the family’s Muslim circle and wearing Western clothes.
Mrs Arshad, who worked as a canteen assistant in a local special-needs school, had left her native Pakistan in 1992 to be with Mr Arshad in Britain. Last year they moved to a four-bedroom £200,000 house in Cheadle Hulme, a desirable suburb in south Manchester, from nearby Burnage. Mrs Arshad described the house as her dream home but it was not long after that she separated from Mr Arshad. She and the children moved back after she decided to give the marriage another chance.
The murders shocked the Arshads’ neighbours, who described the couple’s children as lovely, confident and cheerful. Teachers at their school, Bradshaw Hall Primary School, said that they had made many friends since moving there.
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Two people, a husband and wife from Burnage, were also arrested on suspicion of murder but were later released on police bail.