NEW DELHI, Jan 14: In an unsettling incident in Hounslow, West London, 200 members of the Sikh community gathered chanting, “Jo Bole So Nihaal, Sat Sri Akal,” to rescue a 16-year-old girl held captive by a man in his late 30s. The teenager was raped by 6 other men belonging to a Pakistani grooming gang. After hours of protests, one of the perpetrators was taken into custody by the police, and the girl was released.
The crowd assembled outside a residential property in Hounslow where the girl was believed to be held. After several hours of public demonstrations and a tense standoff, the teenager was safely recovered. Footage of the event has since circulated widely on social media. The videos show a significant police presence at the scene as a suspect was led away in a van amid a heated atmosphere.
The accused had befriended the teenager when she was only 13 years old and began to form a relationship with her. She was persuaded through grooming tactics to leave her home when she turned 16, according to the Sikh Press Association. The area where the accused lived had 20 secondary schools, with several children passing by his home.
The Metropolitan Police have confirmed that a suspect is currently in custody and that an investigation into the matter is ongoing. This incident has renewed long-standing concerns regarding organized grooming networks in the United Kingdom. Such groups, constituting people from Pakistan, frequently target young, vulnerable girls between the ages of 11 and 16.
Reports suggest that these perpetrators often use “loverboy” tactics—offering gifts, affection, and friendship—to build trust. Once a victim is isolated from her family and support network, the abuse often escalates to include blackmail, trafficking and systematic abuse. They usually target interfaith girls from vulnerable backgrounds to isolate them from their families. Once they are isolated, the perpetrators blackmail them with threats, and they are also trafficked for profit.
Last year, billionaire Elon Musk stood up in support of Reform UK Member of Parliament Rupert Lowe. The MP had urged others to ignore the UK prime minister’s calls to vote against a full national inquiry into the Pakistani rape gangs. “They should ignore him and do the right thing,” he wrote on X.
Musk supported Lowe by writing, “For all those poor little girls who were so terribly abused, many of whom died, they should do the right thing,” in a post on Abuse is “endemic” across England and Wales.
(Rohit Kumar)
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