A SCOTTISH father whose three-year-old son was abducted and killed by a gang in Pakistan in 2014 has pleaded for help from the UK Government and the Pakistan Embassy in London to bring his killers to justice.

For four months, Iftikhar Ahmad, a British national who has lived in Stirling for over 20 years, believed that the group who had abducted Shahryar from outside his grandmother’s home in Faisalabad, Pakistan, were holding him to ransom.

However, Shahryar’s body was found dumped in a rural canal by local police two days after his abduction.

The local police buried the unidentified body and failed to tell Ahmad that his son was not being held ransom and that he had been found dead until almost four months later.

Shahryar, who was a British national, was lured from his grandmothers’ home by a little girl who had asked him to come play, before being snatched by a gang who took him to a village 30 miles outside of the city, where he was brutally beaten and strangled.

Ahmad has tirelessly campaigned for his son’s killers to be brought to justice for their actions, in spite of vicious threats from members of the gang that both he and his family will face harm if he continues.

However, he has become increasingly frustrated by the lack of action from the police force in Pakistan in finding those responsible.

Ahmad said police have also failed to provide an explanation or an apology for the length of time it took them to tell him his son was dead.

Ahmad has been working with Central Scotland Regional Equality Council, a voluntary organisation working to reduce discrimination and to promote equality across the Forth Valley area, in a bid to secure justice for Shahryar by ensuring that his killers are brought to account for their actions.

They have called on the UK Government and the Pakistan High Commission in the UK to intervene in bringing Shahryar’s killers to justice.

However, neither request has succeeded in capturing the gang members responsible for this brutal murder.

Ahmad said: “I was devastated when my son was murdered, and it is making me upset that no-one in Britain seems to be bothering because the child was black.

“It strikes me that the Pakistani embassy staff are only there to make money, not to look after people’s needs or interests. It is all very sad, and all I want is justice for my little boy.”

Daniel Jones, equality engagement officer for Central Scotland Regional Equality Council, who have been supporting Ahmad with this case, said: “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.”