The Pakistani cleric given an award by the Archbishop of Canterbury has been accused of protecting a blasphemy “blackmail” gang, The Telegraph can reveal.
Tahir Ashrafi, Pakistan’s special envoy on interfaith harmony, was handed the award for his “unwavering commitment” to “religious tolerance” by Dame Sarah Mullally, at a ceremony held on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
The Hubert Walter Award was hastily withdrawn last week when it emerged that Mr Ashrafi, a British dual-national, had previously honoured Osama bin Laden.
Now, a Telegraph investigation has found that:
* Mr Ashrafi’s brother is the alleged leader of a “blasphemy gang” that has worked with corrupt police officials to abduct, torture and blackmail dozens of men.
* Mr Ashrafi has publicly defended his brother and accused lawyers for the victims of “protecting blasphemers”. He also called a judge investigating the gang a “dog”.
* Mr Ashrafi has been able to freely travel in and out of London because he has been granted UK citizenship.
In Pakistan, blasphemy carries the death penalty. Police say gangs are using “honey traps” to extort young men after luring them into committing the offence on social media.
The Telegraph spoke to family members of several men targeted by the Pakistani blasphemy gang, all of whom requested anonymity for fear of violent reprisals.
Police say the gang is behind a huge surge in the number of people jailed for blasphemy. There were around 10 a year in 2020 and 2021 but more than 200 in 2023 alone, according to Pakistan’s National Commission for Human Rights.
One source said their relative had joined a Facebook group and struck up a relationship with a young woman who eventually persuaded him to share a picture of a woman’s breasts overlaid with a verse of the Quran.
The man was then abducted by the gang, who demanded a payment of one million Pakistani rupees (£2,700). They then filed formal charges against him, which led to him being jailed.
At least four of the gang’s victims have died from torture, according to an investigation by the exiled Pakistani media outlet Fact Focus.
One was allegedly raped with a wooden baton. Another had severe bruising around the groin, according to a prison post mortem examination that claimed he died of “urine retention”.
Family members of victims said they had been shocked to see Mr Ashrafi greeted so warmly by the Archbishop, claiming that the cleric and his brother were responsible for ruining their lives.
In photographs from Lambeth Palace, Mr Ashrafi smiles broadly beside his wife, whose face is covered with a niqab, and Dame Sarah.
One source said: “We were shocked to see him get the award.” Mr Ashrafi “put us in a ditch from which we cannot get out”, they added, citing the danger, difficulty and financial cost of trying to free their loved one. “Whatever we had, he took from us.”
Mr Ashrafi played the “good cop” while his brother, Hassan Muawiya Ashrafi, was the “bad cop” who entrapped and rounded up victims on the street, the source claimed.
“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.”
Mr Ashrafi has denied that he and his brother are part of a blasphemy gang and invited critics to prove that they had extorted money.
Defending alleged blasphemers is perilous in Pakistan, with lawyers, judges and senators among more than 100 people killed by vigilante mobs in the last 30 years.
In the West, Mr Ashrafi is known as a friend of Pakistan’s Christian minority and an approachable interlocutor with hard-line Muslim groups and terrorist organisations.
A former member of an anti-Shia extremist group, the cleric often broadcasts progressive messages on behalf of the Pakistani government.
He has supported polio vaccinations, called the Islamic State a “terror outfit” and backed the construction of a Hindu temple in Islamabad.
His edicts carry extra weight because of his role as chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council, a body of clerics that represents various Islamic sects.
In its original award citation, Lambeth Palace noted Mr Ashrafi’s intervention in the case of Rimsha Masih, a 14-year-old Christian girl who was falsely accused of blasphemy in 2012.
Urdu-language media reports claim it was after this that Britain granted him citizenship.
The Telegraph was told by a source with knowledge of the matter that Mr Ashrafi had a British passport.
The Home Office refused to answer an approach for comment. Mr Ashrafi did not respond to a request for comment, but has complained that “propaganda” led to his award being withdrawn.
In response to that decision, the Pakistan Ulema Council issued a statement saying Mr Ashrafi’s remarks on bin Laden had been “taken out of context”.
The cleric had “consistently opposed the misuse of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws,” it added, particularly “false accusations” against “innocent people”.
Mr Ashrafi was “instrumental in releasing many people before the mob can lynch them”, said Dr Azad Marshall, the leader of the protestant Church of Pakistan, which originally nominated the cleric.
However, several sources from various minority faith groups disputed that claim in interviews with The Telegraph, noting that the Church of Pakistan held close ties to the state.
“He stands up for the accused in very few cases, only those that get international media attention,” said Sardar Gill, a human-rights defender who focuses on the persecution of Christians from exile. He claimed that Mr Ashrafi only defended Christians “because of international pressure”.
In 2022, the US state department noted that Mr Ashrafi’s brother had filed several blasphemy complaints against members of the Ahmadis, an Islamic sect that hardliners deem to be non-Muslim.
In 2020, Mr Ashrafi thanked Imran Khan, the former Pakistani prime minister, for excluding the Ahmadis from a government commission intended to safeguard minority rights. “He opposes the [Ahmadis] openly,” said Mr Gill.
‘Political cover for his brother’s hate campaign’
Rabia Mehmood, a journalist and former Amnesty International researcher, said: “Tahir Ashrafi has provided political cover to his brother’s hate campaign, which began by targeting religious minorities and has since expanded to target anyone, weaponising the blasphemy law.”
In the last four years, Muawiya Ashrafi has personally filed blasphemy complaints against 26 individuals, according to police charge-sheets reviewed by The Telegraph. Nobody has accused more people over that period, victims’ groups say.
In 2024, the Special Branch of Punjab police blamed the surge in cases on a “blasphemy business gang” involving corrupt officials in the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Pakistan’s equivalent of the FBI.
The report named known associates of Muawiya Ashrafi as ringleaders, including Sheraz Ahmad Farooqi and Rao Abdur Raheem, a lawyer.
Muawiya Ashrafi himself was not named, but Fact Focus later described him as the manager of the Lahore operations of the blasphemy gang.
He “operates with unchecked authority” and “routinely portrays himself as a powerful figure with direct influence over FIA officials”, reported the website, which is blocked in Pakistan.
It also published CCTV footage of Muawiya leading police to arrest some of the men he had accused. In one clip, the cleric wags his finger at a man who holds his head in his hands.
The Telegraph spoke to a family member of someone jailed because of a blasphemy allegation filed by Mr Ashrafi’s brother.
The source said their relative had been tricked into sending blasphemous content on WhatsApp.
Weeks later, he was abducted. Family members were allowed to see him, with Muawiya and FIA officials in the room. The accused man was hobbling and had been beaten so badly he “could hardly speak”, the source said.
They were then “asked for the value of our house and our jewellery”. When the family said they were poor, the gang said a case would be formally filed and the man remains in prison.
In spring last year, a champion for the victims emerged. Sardar Ejaz Ishaq Khan, an Oxford-educated judge at the Islamabad High Court, held 40 hearings into the blasphemy gang, in response to petitions from more than 100 families.
The proceedings were livestreamed because of threats to disrupt them. Before they began in March 2025, Muawiya filed a defamation complaint against Imaan Mazari and Hadi Ali Chattha, the husband-and-wife legal team representing the victims.
The complaint went nowhere and the couple, who have a track record of taking on Pakistan’s powerful military establishment, have since been jailed on “politically motivated” charges, according to Amnesty.
In court, Muawiya Ashrafi denied being part of a blasphemy gang or taking money. He said he had been motivated to file complaints because his mother had told him to “protect the dignity of the Prophet Muhammad”.
Responding to a video clip that showed one of the accused being brought to his house in handcuffs, he claimed it had been “edited”.
In one hearing, he interrupted Mr Justice Khan to accuse him of bias. “Shut up and get out of my court,” Mr Justice Khan replied, raising his voice and pointing to the door.
At the end of the proceedings in July last year, the judge ordered the government to form a commission of inquiry within 30 days.
He described a pattern of missing evidence, poor police work and the use of the same few women in chats that led to the alleged sharing of blasphemous material.
Nine days later, Mr Justice Khan’s order was suspended after an appeal was filed by Mr Raheem, the lawyer named by police as a ringleader in the gang.
In October last year, Mr Ashrafi broke his long silence on accusations that he and his brother had profited from fake blasphemy cases in an appearance on a Pakistani talk show.
“If anyone can prove that my brother or I took a single rupee from someone on these cases, you can hang me,” he told Azaz Syed, the show’s host.
Describing his brother as a humble and pious man, he turned his wrath on the lawyers defending the accused and the lobbying groups made up of their family members.
“It’s strange that the media calls poor people fighting blasphemers a ‘gang’ but not those who protect these blasphemers,” Mr Ashrafi said, adding that Mr Justice Khan was “one-sided”.
In July 2025, Mr Ashrafi said at a political conference defending Pakistan’s blasphemy laws: “I don’t even consider him a judge. I don’t even consider him a dog.”
In response, Mr Syed noted that Mr Ashrafi had issued a firm defence of his brother and criticised those acting for the alleged victims. “Even if you say you are not part it, it seems you are the one who gives a political umbrella to this group,” Mr Syed said.
Mr Ashrafi replied: “If I have the authority or opportunity to give them a political umbrella, I must do it.” He added that they had never asked for such help and that he had not seen his brother for weeks.
The cleric had not replied to The Telegraph’s request for comment by the time of publication.
Lambeth Palace said: “We fully recognise the widespread concern caused by the inclusion of Imam Ashrafi in last week’s Lambeth Awards ceremony.”
“Lambeth Palace is reviewing how this particular award came to be given – and our wider nomination and vetting processes – to ensure that lessons are learned for the future.”
The nomination was made under the tenure of Justin Welby, the former archbishop, and Lambeth Palace has undergone a period of significant staff turnover since he resigned.