Greater Manchester Police are actively hunting Kasir Bashir, a convicted child rapist and member of the infamous Rochdale grooming gang, after he evaporated into thin moral air just before being found guilty of four offences, including rape and indecency with a child.
Bashir, 50, who had been diligently attending weekly bail appointments like a man popping into Tesco’s for milk and denial, suddenly failed to show up for court, a move experts describe as “the legal equivalent of hiding behind the curtains and hoping justice can’t see you”.
In his absence, a jury unanimously convicted him following a four-month trial, where other members of the gang sat through harrowing testimony from survivors who had endured years of abuse, manipulation and grotesque violations. Bashir, however, opted to do a runner, possibly under the mistaken impression that justice, like a dodgy boiler, can be avoided with strategic silence.
Detective Chief Inspector Guy Laycock didn’t mince words, calling Bashir’s vanishing act a “cowardly” attempt to escape accountability. GMP has launched a full manhunt, confirming that time won’t save him, though one suspects the bloke currently hopes the calendar might.
The rest of the convicted gang members, now destined for a lifetime of infamy and hopefully very uncomfortable prison mattresses, include Mohammed Zahid, Mushtaq Ahmed, Roheez Khan, Mohammed Shahzad, Nisar Hussain, and Naheem Akram, all found guilty of appalling crimes that defy any reasonable description outside of the darkest corners of human behaviour.
While Rochdale and the broader Greater Manchester region begin the long process of healing, residents remain angry but unsurprised that Bashir has done what so many predators before him have tried: run from a reckoning decades overdue.
Anyone with information about Bashir’s whereabouts is urged to contact GMP or Crimestoppers. Bonus points if you drag him to the nearest police station by the ear.
