Pakistan has allegedly proposed a deal to the United Kingdom, accepting two convicted members of the Rochdale grooming gang only if Britain agrees to extradite two anti-regime Pakistani dissidents living in exile.
The claim was reported by US-based outlet Drop Site News, citing unnamed sources. No government has confirmed it.
According to the report, Islamabad conveyed that it would issue travel documents for Qari Abdul Rauf and Adil Khan, both stripped of UK citizenship and stateless since 2018, in exchange for the handover of former Imran Khan aide Shahzad Akbar and army whistleblower Adil Raja.
The alleged proposal surfaced after a December 4 meeting between Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and UK High Commissioner Jane Marriott.
Drop Site News claims Naqvi placed Rauf and Khan under the broad category of “illegally residing Pakistanis”.
A report noted that Naqvi also warned Pakistan would not allow “slander and defamation against state institutions from those sitting abroad”, interpreted as a reference to Akbar and Raja.
Responding on X, Shahzad Akbar said: “My publications, broadcasts, and political commentary on human-rights abuses in Pakistan, the rise of authoritarianism, and the current impasse over military appointments have deeply angered the regime.”
Journalist Waqas Ahmed, who worked on the Drop Site News story, wrote: “They have finally figured out a way to weaponise British grooming gangs against overseas activists.”
A Lahore-based user commented: “The Pakistani government now uses grooming gangs as diplomatic leverage.”
UK’s grooming-gang scandal
The UK’s grooming-gang scandal refers to organised networks of men—many of Pakistani origin—who, from the 1990s onwards, targeted vulnerable, mostly white, working-class girls with alleged fancy cars, alcohol and drugs. Victims were groomed, trafficked and violently raped across towns, including Rotherham, Rochdale, Oldham and Telford.
Some of the most shocking cases include the Hussain brothers’ abuse of dozens of girls, the rape of “Louise Lowe” (name changed) by more than 100 men, the murder of a 16-year-old Telford girl and her family, and “one assault by 30–40 men in one night”, reports The Week.
The 2012 Rochdale case remains one of Britain’s most contentious child-exploitation scandals. Although successive UK governments have pushed to deport convicted offenders, Pakistan has long refused to take them back, arguing they renounced their nationality and could not be reintegrated.
Billionaire Elon Musk reignited global attention in late 2024, alleging massive institutional failures and pledging to support legal action.
“There are gangs that would go around & prey on young girls – so people found that objectionable & would complain about that”
Elon Musk on the sad State & fall of The United Kingdom pic.twitter.com/sYlb63zMuB
— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) December 20, 2024
Amid mounting public pressure, Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a national inquiry in June 2024, but survivors’ groups say progress has stalled.
Pakistan and the UK do not have a formal extradition treaty; only “ad hoc” arrangements under Section 194 of the UK Extradition Act 2003 apply. Critics warn deportation of grooming-gang convicts with the extradition of political opponents could escalate diplomatic tensions.
How the grooming-gang scandal emerged
Warnings first surfaced in 2002, when Labour MP Ann Cryer raised concerns in Keighley. In 2010, five men were convicted in Rotherham for offences against girls aged 12 to 16. A major investigation by The Times later exposed a broader nationwide pattern of abuse by organised groups of predominantly British-Pakistani men.
Since then, grooming-gang convictions have occurred in more than a dozen English towns, including Bristol, Oxford, Huddersfield, Halifax and Banbury.
Why they are called ‘grooming gangs’
Unlike most child sexual abuse, which involves family members or trusted adults, these networks used street-level grooming: befriending girls aged 11–16, offering attention, food, alcohol or drugs, then coercing them into sex. Victims were often passed on to other men and subjected to extreme violence.
A landmark 2014 report by Professor Alexis Jay found: “Children were raped by multiple perpetrators, trafficked to other towns and cities, abducted, beaten and intimidated.”
Some victims were murdered, including Lucy Lowe, who died at 16 in 2000 when her abuser set fire to her family home.
How many children were abused?
The numbers are vast and contested:
Rotherham: at least 1,400 victims (1997–2013)
Telford: more than 1,000 victims over three decades
Rochdale: 74 identified victims, with evidence of broader exploitation
Authorities’ failures
Multiple inquiries found that police and social services repeatedly failed victims. Jay’s 2014 report said South Yorkshire Police treated victims with “contempt,” and social workers “underplayed” the abuse.
There were cases where:
Fathers were arrested for trying to rescue their daughters
A girl found intoxicated with abusers was arrested, while the men walked free
Child sexual exploitation was dismissed as “child prostitution”
Whistleblowers were sidelined
Victims later alleged some officers themselves were involved in abuse—claims currently unprosecuted.
Why officials failed
Inquiries cite incompetence, misogyny, class prejudice and a fear of being labelled racist. Many victims were in care homes and dismissed as “unreliable witnesses.”
Jay found councillors worried confronting the issue would damage “community cohesion.” Telford’s inquiry identified a “nervousness about race.” Dame Louise Casey concluded that authorities repeatedly failed to acknowledge that offenders were disproportionately from Asian or Pakistani backgrounds targeting white girls and that flawed data was used to dismiss the problem.
Government response
Under pressure, Starmer’s government launched
A nationwide audit
Five local inquiries
A national police review of unpursued cases
An Independent Commission–led national inquiry
Expanded funding for AI-enabled policing tools to analyse large volumes of evidence and translate foreign-language communications.
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