Pakistan Blames Britain for “Grooming” and “Spoiling” Rochdale Rapist and Turning Him to Crime, From: The Daily Sceptic and UK Telegraph
Pakistan has blamed Britain for "grooming" and "spoiling" the ringleader of the Rochdale rape gang and turning him to crime, claiming he has "no connection to Pakistan whatsoever". The Telegraph has more.
Tahir Andrabi, the country's Foreign Office Spokesman, suggested that the root causes of Pakistan-born Shabir Ahmed's criminality lay in the UK, where he "grew up, was raised, groomed and, unfortunately, spoiled".
Andrabi said the onus for dealing with Ahmed lay "exclusively" with the UK and publicly declared for the first time that his Government would not take back the child rapist, who came to Britain 60 years ago.
Britain is seeking to deport 73-year-old Ahmed back to his birth country following his release from prison two weeks ago after serving 14 years of a 22-year sentence for 30 child rape offences.
In a press statement on Thursday, Andrabi said: "His heinous crimes demand serious introspection rather than a quest to search for extraneous causes."
On Monday, Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, announced that she would change 50 year-old immigration laws to close a loophole that prevented the Home Office from deporting Ahmed, even though he has been stripped of his British citizenship.
Ahmed, who was known as 'Daddy' to his victims, received concurrent sentences of 22 and 19 years for raping children as young as 12 whom his gang groomed at two takeaway restaurants in Rochdale. The court was told he had abused one girl for more than a decade, using her as a "possession" for his own sexual gratification.
Earlier this month, the Telegraph revealed that Pakistan was refusing to take him back because it claimed he had renounced his Pakistani citizenship, and was demanding that Britain accepted its extradition requests for dissidents living in the UK.
In his statement, Andrabi said: "Pakistan condemns the incident of child sexual abuse in the strongest possible terms. Perpetrators of such heinous crimes must be investigated, prosecuted, and punished to the fullest extent of the law, irrespective of race, ethnicity or religion.
"The matter in question is entirely an internal matter of the United Kingdom. The individual concerned is a British national who spent his entire adult life in the UK and was duly convicted by a British court for reprehensible offences committed on British soil.
"Any decision regarding his release, supervision, or future legal status falls exclusively within the jurisdiction of the competent British authorities and must be dealt with in accordance with the laws of the United Kingdom.
"Regardless of where he was born, the onus lies on where he grew up, was raised, groomed and, unfortunately, spoiled. His heinous crimes demand serious introspection rather than a quest to search for extraneous causes.
"Let me add that the Government of Pakistan has no connection whatsoever with this matter. We cannot be associated with any decisions relating to the individual's release or subsequent treatment under British law."
Britain disputes that Ahmed has renounced his Pakistani citizenship. Officials say he may have torn up his passport, but claim he did not go through the full process of terminating his citizenship.
It is understood that the UK has been in negotiations with Pakistan over Ahmed's deportation for a year. Parallel discussions over returning two other ringleaders of the Rochdale grooming gang, who have also sought to avoid deportation by renouncing their citizenship, are also under way.
Of course, if Ahmed came to Britain when he was 13, he certainly was not "raised" and did not "grow up" here.
Pakistan's exculpatory statement also sounds uncomfortably close to the victim-blaming the rape gangs themselves engage in: it's the girls' fault we raped them, it's Britain's fault for having girls we can rape."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/07/16/pakistan-blames-britain-for-rochdale-rapists-crimes/
