A Telegraph investigation has linked the brother of Pakistani cleric Tahir Ashrafi, recently honoured by the Archbishop of Canterbury, to a gang accused of abducting, torturing and blackmailing men over blasphemy claims.
A Pakistani cleric, awarded by the Archbishop of Canterbury, has been accused of protecting a blasphemy “blackmail” gang, according to a Telegraph investigation. Tahir Ashrafi, Pakistan’s special envoy on interfaith harmony, received the Hubert Walter Award from Dame Sarah Mullally for his “unwavering commitment” to “religious tolerance” at a ceremony held on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
The award was withdrawn last week after it emerged Ashrafi, a British dual national, had previously honoured Osama bin Laden.
The Telegraph investigation now links his brother to a gang accused of abducting, torturing and blackmailing dozens of men over blasphemy claims.
WHAT DOES THE INVESTIGATION CLAIM?
The Telegraph reports that Ashrafi’s brother, Hassan Muawiya Ashrafi, is the alleged leader of a blasphemy gang that has worked with police officials to abduct, torture and blackmail men. It says Ashrafi has publicly defended his brother, accused lawyers acting for victims of “protecting blasphemers”, and called a judge investigating the gang a “dog”. The report also states Ashrafi has been able to travel freely in and out of London because he holds UK citizenship.
Blasphemy carries the death penalty in Pakistan. Police say gangs use “honey traps” on social media to lure young men into committing the offence before extorting them. Pakistan’s National Commission for Human Rights recorded around 10 blasphemy jailings a year in 2020 and 2021, rising to more than 200 in 2023.
HOW DOES THE GANG REPORTEDLY OPERATE?
The Telegraph spoke to family members of several men targeted by the gang, all of whom asked not to be named for fear of reprisals. One source said a relative had joined a Facebook group and built a relationship with a young woman who later persuaded him to share an image combining a woman’s breasts with a Quran verse. The man was then abducted and the gang demanded one million Pakistani rupees, around £2,700. Formal charges were later filed against him, and he was jailed.
The exiled Pakistani outlet Fact Focus has reported that at least four of the gang’s victims died from torture. One case involved alleged rape with a wooden baton. In another, a prison post-mortem recorded severe bruising around the groin but listed the cause of death as “urine retention”.
‘WHATEVER WE HAD, HE TOOK FROM US’
Family members told the Telegraph they were shocked to see Ashrafi received warmly by the Archbishop, saying he and his brother had ruined their lives. One source said: “We were shocked to see him get the award.” They said Ashrafi “put us in a ditch from which we cannot get out”, pointing to the cost and danger of trying to free their relative, adding: “Whatever we had, he took from us.”
The source described Ashrafi as playing the “good cop” while his brother acted as the “bad cop” who carried out the entrapments. “It’s only possible for Muawiya to do this if he has the support of his brother, who has contacts with the intelligence agencies and politicians and bureaucrats,” the source said.
HOW HAS ASHRAFI RESPONDED?
Ashrafi has denied that he and his brother are part of a blasphemy gang and has invited critics to prove any extortion that took place. The Telegraph notes that defending people accused of blasphemy is dangerous in Pakistan, with more than 100 lawyers, judges and senators killed by vigilante mobs over the past 30 years.
In the West, Ashrafi is known as a contact for Pakistan’s Christian minority and as someone who engages with hardline groups and organisations designated as terrorist. A former member of an anti-Shia group, he has since backed polio vaccination campaigns, called Islamic State a “terror outfit”, and supported the construction of a Hindu temple in Islamabad. He chairs the Pakistan Ulema Council, a body representing clerics from different Islamic sects, which gives his statements added weight.
