THE parents of Shafilea Ahmed, the murdered Asian teenager, hijacked a police press conference yesterday to protest their innocence and deny that their daughter had been the victim of an “honour killing”.

Senior detectives were discussing how the body of the 17-year-old — portrayed by police as unhappily trapped between two cultures — had been hidden in undergrowth by the River Kent at Sedgwick, near Kendal, Cumbria.

As the briefing, at a hotel in Warrington, Cheshire, drew to a close, the dead girl’s parents Iftikhar, 44, and Farzana, 41, both on police bail on suspicion of kidnap, entered the room flanked by two solicitors.

Detective Chief Inspector Geraint Jones, leading the inquiry, stood his ground as the media’s attention swung to the corner of the room where the parents were standing.

The couple wept, occasionally dabbing their eyes with handkerchiefs, as their lawyer, Milton Firman, insisted that his clients were innocent and suggested that police had tried to blame them because their investigation had been blinkered through racial stereotyping.

Mr Firman said: “First and foremost, no one can possibly overlook the fact that Iftikhar and Farzana Ahmed have lost a beautiful and irreplaceable daughter. Nothing can change that cruel reality, a reality made all the more painful in view of the unsubstantiated allegations against them.

“Mr and Mrs Ahmed wish to confirm once more that they strenuously deny any direct or indirect involvement in their daughter’s untimely demise. If called upon to do so, they shall not hesitate to defend their good and unblemished names in any court.”

During the confrontation, the lawyer called on police to work with them to uncover Shafilea’s killer and appealed to them to broaden their investigation to “consider thoroughly but fairly” any possible suspects.

Mr Firman added: “Quite obviously Mr and Mrs Ahmed are as anxious as anyone to discover the real truth as to what happened to Shafilea. The police have their total co-operation as all parties must strive to discover the truth about Shafilea’s tragic ending.

“The family’s own lives have been in turmoil ever since their beloved Shafilea disappeared. Now should be the time for them to be left to grieve and for the authorities to go elsewhere to find those truly responsible for any foul play.”

Shafilea disappeared in September shortly after returning from a trip to Pakistan with her father during which she had resisted overtures towards an arranged marriage. The teenager, described as intelligent and ambitious, appeared to pick up the threads of her life and began studying for A levels at Priestley College in Warrington to fulfill her ambition to be a lawyer.

Her disappearance had been reported to police by staff at her old school, Greater Sankey High School, where teachers overheard pupils gossiping. Her parents said that they had not alerted police because she had disappeared before, and they had been unimpressed by the police response.

Police appeared convinced that Shafilea had been kidnapped and murdered. They shied away from using the phrase “honour killing” but, significantly, refused to rule it out as a line of inquiry. Officers searched waste ground near the semi- detached house where Shafilea lived with her parents, three sisters and brother.

Poems and lyrics found in her bedroom revealed a teenager torn between her traditional Muslim home life and the pop music culture of her social life.

Her parents were arrested on suspicion of kidnap but released on police bail. They are due to be questioned again shortly. They had not been invited to the briefing, at which Mr Jones said that DNA tests confirmed that the body thrown up by floodwater in Sedgwick was Shafilea’s.

He said that the body had been concealed and had probably been there since the night she disappeared.

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