Rukhsar Ahmed, 62, Re-elected MP in Pakistan, on UK Police Bail Over Rape Allegations

A former Pakistani state minister has been arrested on suspicion of raping vulnerable young girls in Manchester in the 1990s, the Guardian can reveal. Rukhsar Ahmed, 62, who was re-elected as an MP in Pakistan last week after five years out of office, is on police bail in the UK after his arrest in July 2024 on suspicion of rape and trafficking children in care as part of a grooming gang. Ahmed, who represents the centre-right Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), was a minister in various state governments from 2006 until he lost his seat in 2021. He was arrested at Manchester airport on 18 July 2024 in relation to past child sexual abuse allegations linked to the Rusholme area of the city, where he lived for many years.

Detectives questioned Ahmed in July 2024 about allegations from at least two women who claimed that Ahmed was involved in raping and trafficking them when they were young girls. The ongoing investigation relates to allegations from several women about sexual abuse of children at care homes in the early 1990s, when Ahmed was in his late 20s.