TOI Correspondent from London: Former state minister in PoK Rukhsar Ahmed, who was elected again last week to the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir legislative assembly, is on police bail in the UK for alleged child sex offences in the early 1990s.He previously served as a member of the assembly from 2006 to 2011, and from 2016 to 2021, and has held various ministerial roles.Ahmed, owner of a now derelict restaurant in Manchester called Gujjar Palace, was arrested at Manchester airport on July 18, 2024, on suspicion of rape and trafficking girls in care in Manchester in the 1990s as part of a grooming gang, the Guardian has revealed.The historic child sexual abuse allegations are linked to the Rusholme area of the city, where he lived for many years. Two women have alleged that Ahmed was involved in raping and trafficking them when they were young girls in care homes in the early 1990s and he was in his 20s. According to the Guardian, detectives only learned about Ahmed’s involvement in Pakistani politics when he was in custody for questioning.Ahmed (62) was expected to answer bail at a police station in Manchester last month, but failed to attend because he said he was too unwell to fly to the UK. At the same time, he was pictured on social media campaigning at various election gatherings in Mirpur.A UK judge permitted him to travel to Pakistan despite being on police bail.He is due to answer police bail again in the next six weeks. If he does not attend, Greater Manchester police could issue a warrant for his arrest or take steps to extradite him — potentially causing another diplomatic bust-up with Pakistan who are already refusing to accept Rochdale grooming gang ringleader Shabir Ahmed, whom Britain wants to deport.Friends of Ahmed told the Guardian Ahmed was “incredibly influential” in Manchester’s Pakistani community given his political role in PoK.Operation Edison is a Greater Manchester police investigation into non-recent child sexual exploitation in Rusholme during the 1990s. It was launched in Jan 2020, and so far there have been 22 arrests.
