Pakistan offers to accept UK grooming gang convicts in return for Shahzad, Adil: report

Pakistan has reportedly offered to accept convicted British-Pakistani grooming gang leaders in return for the UK extraditing political dissidents wanted in Pakistan.

According to a UK media report, the offer was discussed during a meeting between Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and Britain’s High Commissioner Jane Marriott.

Adil Khan, 55, and Qari Abdul Rauf, 56, were jailed in 2012 as ringleaders of a nine-member gang in Rochdale.

The gang was convicted of sexually assaulting 47 girls, some as young as 12, over a two-year period, using drink and drugs to exploit their victims.

Both men held dual British-Pakistani citizenship but were stripped of their British nationality following their convictions. A judge had ordered their deportation to Pakistan nearly ten years ago, but both renounced Pakistani citizenship days before an appeal against the Home Office’s deportation order.

According to the report, Islamabad is willing to issue travel documents for Khan and Rauf to be sent to Pakistan if London agrees to extradite Shahzad Akbar and Adil Raja.