‘My three-year-old’s brutal killing by gang’
Equality group join Stirling dad in fight for justice
A Stirling man whose son was abducted and killed by a gang in Pakistan three years ago has enlisted the help of an equality group as he continues to fight for justice.
Iftkhar Ahmad, who has lived in Braehead for more than 20 years, was led to believe for four months that the gang who had abducted his son Shahryar were holding him to ransom.
However the body of the three-year-old was found dumped in a rural canal by police two days after his abduction and, rather than informing Mr Ahmad of this they buried the body and kept it quiet for months.
In spite of vicious threats from members of the gang responsible, Mr Ahmad has campaigned for his son’s killers to be brought to justice and for the police in Pakistan to provide an explanation for the time taken to notify him of his son’s death.
He has been left frustrated at the lack of response from both the UK Government and the Pakistan Embassy and, as a result, contacted the Central Scotland Regional Equality Council (CSREC) for support.
Mr Ahmad, a taxi driver in the city, told the Observer: “I have been working with them for around six or seven months. We’re just trying to raise the issue but it’s been quite difficult so far. We’ve written to the Home Office and the embassy in London but haven’t heard back.
“The equality council have been a great help and they have been writing to everyone. We just want this to be taken seriously. It’s very frustrating as nobody seems to care. All I want is justice for my little boy.”
Shahryar, who was a British national, was lured from his grandmother’s home in Faisalabad by a little girl who asked him to come play, before being snatched by a gang who took him to a village 30-miles outside the city where he was brutally beaten and strangled.
His body was found dumped in a rural canal by local police two days after his abduction, but rather than informing Mr Ahmad of this, the local police buried the body and didn’t disclose this for almost four months – all the while Mr Ahmad maintained hope he would one day find his son alive.
The distraught father has since campaigned tirelessly for his son’s killers to be brought to account, and CSREC are requesting the intervention of the UK Government and the Pakistan High Commission in the UK in bringing Shahryar’s killers to justice.
Daniel Jones, equality engagement officer for CSREC, said: “The murder of Shahryar Ahmad was a terribly upsetting incident for his father Iftkhar, and that the police failed to inform him of his son’s death and allowed him to continue searching for him, all the while having already buried the unidentified body and obstructed the path to justice, has only added to his agony.
“Mr Ahmad has a simple request – that his son’s killers are brought to justice for their actions. We have supported him in making contact with both the UK Government, the Pakistan High Commission in London, the Overseas Pakistanis Office and the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation, each attempt to no avail.
“Both we and Mr Ahmad have been left frustrated by inaction, and we would like to add our voice to Mr Ahmad’s call for justice for his son.”
It’s frustrating. Nobody seems to care