Two Rochdale grooming gang ringleaders could finally be deported to Pakistan by the end of this year, officials there have revealed – after a decade’s delay.
British officials have been trying to deport Qari Abdul Rauf, 55, and Adil Khan, 54, following their leading roles in the grooming gangs scandal.
The UK this month dropped a ban on direct flights between the two countries dating back five years yet still the two men have remained in the Greater Manchester town.
But after Pakistan’s government was believed to have used the pair’s detention as a ‘bargaining chip’, there are suggestions now they could take the men back.
That would be in return for Britain’s decision to lift a previous five-year ban on Pakistani International Airlines.
A senior Pakistani government official involved in talks on Rauf and Khan has now indicated his nation’s interior ministry must now give legal clearance for their return.
He was quoted by the Times as saying: ‘I believe a resolution could be reached within a month or two, although there are some legal and political complexities involved.
‘Currently, the case is being handled by Pakistan’s interior ministry. Once they provide clearance, it will be passed to the foreign ministry, which will finalise the acceptance of Rauf and Khan.’
Politicians and members of the Pakistani government have been in engaged in ‘high-level talks’ to allow Qari Abdul Rauf, pictured, and Adil Khan to be deported
Adil Khan got a 13-year-old girl pregnant but denied he was the father, then met another girl and trafficked her to others
The two groomers were at the heart of a child abuse ring where girls as young as 12 were groomed with free booze and drugs before being gang-raped.
They held dual British-Pakistani citizenship but were stripped of their British nationality when they were convicted and jailed in 2012.
Both men then renounced their Pakistani citizenship, in a cynical move that made them stateless and consequently much trickier to deport due to international law.
In 2022, they both lost an appeal against deportation after a seven-year legal battle that cost the British taxpayer a fortune, but they kept living in Rochdale because Pakistan would not take them back.
But Islamabad’s position could now change, according to reports, now that UK ministers have given the green light for direct flights to resume between the two countries.
The country’s national carrier PIA was barred from operating inside the EU and UK in 2020.
That followed an incident on May 22 that year when a passenger flight from Lahore to Karachi crashed, killing 97 out of the 99 people on board as well as an additional victim on the ground.
Married father-of-five Rauf, a religious studies teacher at a Rochdale mosque, would drive schoolgirls to other men who would rape and abuse them.
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) passenger plane sits on the runway in 2023. The carrier has been banned from flying direct to the UK following safety concerns after a crash in 2020
Rochdale grooming gang member Qari Abdul Rauf, who spent two years and six months in jail, was seen leaving his home in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, on January 18, 2024
He walked free in 2014 after serving just two and a half years of a six-year prison sentence.
Last month, the Daily Mail revealed how he built a house in his native Pakistan – despite receiving £285,000 of taxpayers’ money in a battle against being deported, casting fresh doubts on claims he had cut ties with Pakistan.
Khan was convicted of sex trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child.
The offender, who had a baby with one of the victims aged just 13 at the time, served four years of an eight-year jail term before being released in 2016.
Rauf ferried victims from Rochdale to sex parties as far away as Leeds and Bradford, in a scandal that ultimately led to nine men being convicted for trafficking and abusing almost 50 girls.
Officials in Islamabad last month told the Times that Pakistan could finally agree to take the two men once direct flights are resumed.
And the British High Commission in Pakistan subsequently confirmed PIA was once again legally allowed to fly non-stop routes into the UK.
A spokesperson said: ‘After a sustained, independent and technically driven process, the UK’s Air Safety Committee has lifted its restrictions on Pakistani carriers.
Rochdale grooming gang member Abdul Rauf, 55, has built a house in his home village in Pakistan, despite continuing to fight deportation from Britain 11 years after being freed from prison
‘It will take time for flights to resume, but this is an important step, and a testament to Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority’s air safety improvements.
‘Individual airline carriers will still need to apply for permits to operate to the UK through the UK Civil Aviation Authority.’
Jane Marriott, the UK high commissioner to Pakistan, added at the time: ‘I’m grateful to aviation experts in the UK and Pakistan for their collaborative work to drive improvements to meet international safety standards.
‘While it will take time for flights to resume, once the logistics are in place, I look forward to using a Pakistani carrier when visiting family and friends.’
An estimated 1.6million people of Pakistani heritage are believed to be living in the UK.
Paul Waugh, Labour MP for Rochdale, has now said following the latest reported progress: ‘Ever since I was elected, I have been working constantly with ministers to deport these Rochdale grooming gang ringleaders to Pakistan.
‘The last government failed to boot these vile paedophiles out of Britain. That’s totally unacceptable to me, to the people of Rochdale and most of all to their victims.
‘I know that we are having to deal with a complex diplomatic and legal process, but I’ve ensured this is a high priority within government and I’m encouraged that progress sounds like it is being made. The sooner we see the back of them, the better.’
Rauf’s neighbours in Rochdale (pictured) have told of their disgust at him being permitted to still live in the same town where he carried out his vile crimes
Rauf – pictured leaving his Rochdale home on January 18, 2024 – was stripped of his British citizenship, but his deportation has been held up as Pakistan reportedly refused to take him
Earlier this year, MailOnline revealed that Rauf was working in Rochdale as a delivery driver, prompting fears he might meet one of his victims during the course of his work.
His neighbours in Rochdale were disgusted that he was still allowed to live in the same town where he carried out his vile crimes.
One mother, who lives just a few doors away, said: ‘Nobody can believe that monster is still here, after what he did to those young girls.
‘It’s disgusting. What is the country coming to? Why is he still here?’
And furious neighbours of Rauf in Rochdale described how they were terrified to let their children out of sight after the 55-year-old was released.
The convicted paedophile was told he would be deported back to Pakistan after completing his sentence in 2014 – but he remains living in the Greater Manchester town more than a decade later.
Rauf claims to be stateless after renouncing his Pakistani nationality – however, his claim to have cut ties have now been thrown into doubt.
Neighbours in the remote village which he left to move to Britain in the 1990s have revealed that the father-of-five has built a house there.
Locals in the village of Charhoi in Pakistan-administered Kashmir say convicted paedophile Abdul Rauf has funded the construction of a house with the intention of living there when he is finally deported
They said his intention was to live in it when he is finally kicked out of the UK.
They also contradicted his claim during his battle against deportation that he would be at risk in Pakistan due to ‘public opinion’ because of his convictions, saying his family remains ‘influential’ there.
Rauf was one of a nine-strong gang of Asian men who sexually assaulted 47 girls, some as young as 12, after plying them with drink and drugs.
Their conviction in 2012 shocked the country and sparked years of campaigning by victims, which earlier this month finally prompted Sir Keir Starmer to agree to a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal.
Rauf – who moved to the UK in 1997 – lost an appeal against being stripped of British nationality in 2018.
But he appealed against deportation on the grounds he had already renounced his Pakistani citizenship and would therefore be rendered stateless.
Rauf has received a staggering £285,000 in legal aid as he bids to avoid being thrown out of the country, it emerged earlier this year.
Despite losing the case, he remains in Rochdale where he works as a takeaway delivery driver as Pakistan won’t accept him without valid travel documents.
According to a villager in Charhoi, Rochdale grooming gang member Abdul Rauf’s conviction would not be widely discussed if he is sent back as his family is ‘influential’
But inquiries by MailOnline in his home village of Charhoi in Pakistan-administered Kashmir suggest he has retained close links.
According to villagers who know the family, he has sent back money to fund the construction of a new house near the bazaar with the intention of living there himself.
They said he initially allowed his elder brother to live there with his family – but had now asked him to vacate the building.
‘His brother lived there for few months but came back to his old home when his children told him to leave Abdul Rauf’s home and go back to his old one,’ the resident said.
As part of his 2022 appeal against deportation, Rauf claimed that if he was sent back to Pakistan, he ‘would be at risk due to the public opinion of the criminal conviction’ and would not be ‘protected’ by the authorities there.
But a villager cast doubt on his claim, saying that while locals knew about the case, he would be safe as a result of his family ties.
‘Since they are influential and financially strong people in their street, this topic was not much discussed,’ the resident said.
Before his conviction, Rauf was seen as a pillar of Rochdale’s Muslim community because of his role as a ‘qari’, a cleric who reads from the Koran.
But the men’s trial heard how he trafficked a 15-year-old girl for sex, driving her to secluded areas to have sex with her in his taxi and ferrying her to a flat in Rochdale where he and others had sex with her.
