THE parents of a Muslim teenager suspected to be the victim of an honour killing were arrested on suspicion of her murder.

Shafilea Ahmed disappeared from her home in Warrington in 2003, amid fears that she was being forced into an arranged marriage.

The 17-year-old’s decomposed remains were discovered in Cumbria five months later.

Yesterday, detectives from Cheshire Police called at the family’s red-brick semi-detached in Great Sankey early in the morning and arrested her father, Iftikhar, 50, and mother, Farzana, 47.

While they were being questioned throughout yesterday, a forensic team went through their house looking for clues.

As a Police Community Support Officer stood outside, men in white forensics suit could be seen walking through the house before officers closed the vertical blinds.

Neighbours said they saw three men in suits, thought to be detectives, arrive at the address just before 6.45am. They knocked on the door and were allowed inside.

Some time later, Mr and Mrs Ahmed were put into the back of an unmarked car and driven away.

One neighbour said: “They are just an unassuming couple. What they have been through is obviously shocking.”

A local taxi driver said: “It’s been the talk of the Muslim community since they were arrested.

“Everyone knew the police had been.”

When Shafilea disappeared from her home in Great Sankey, it emerged how she had refused an arranged marriage, and, during a visit to Pakistan to meet a prospective husband, had drunk bleach.

Nobody has ever been charged in connection with her death.

In 2008, a coroner recorded a verdict of “unlawful killing” – a ruling her family tried and failed to overturn in the High Court.

The arrests come days after Shafilea’s sister, Alisha, 22, was arrested over an allegation she staged a robbery at the family home which saw her, her mother, a sister and her brother tied up and threatened with a weapon last month.

Cheshire Police refused to conform or deny anything other than the arrest of a “50-year-old man and a 47-year-old woman from Warrington on suspicion of murder.”