Shafilea Ahmed Murder: Father Iftikhar Ahmed Was An Adulterer Who Abandoned His Son

Shafilea's Father Revealed As An Adulterer Who Abandoned His Son

Iftikhar Ahmed was an adulterer who cheated on his first wife and abandoned his son in order to avoid bringing shame on his family in Pakistan.

Mr Ahmed was already married to a Danish woman by the name of Vivi Lone Anderson when he decided to turn his back on her and follow through with the marriage his family had arranged for him when he was a child.

They were married in June 1982 in Copenhagen and had a son, Tony Anderson.

Mr Ahmed stayed in Denmark until 1986 when he received a letter from his family in Pakistan.

Iftikhar Ahmed and his wife were found guilty of murdering their 17-year-old daughter Shafilea

He told his then wife he had to go home as his mother was ill, but Ms Anderson was to discover that this was a lie.

She and her son were asked to join Mr Ahmed in Bradford in May 1986 after he had returned from Pakistan.

It was in their new family home that Ms Anderson met a heavily pregnant woman who was living with them in the house.

She presumed it was a member of Mr Ahmed's family.

The lie was only discovered when a health visitor came to the house and established Mr Ahmed was the father of the unborn child.

He then admitted he had returned to Pakistan where he had been required to marry Farzana, who had fallen pregnant immediately.

He told his wife that he and Farzana had been promised to each other when they were children.

Ms Anderson left the UK the same month she had arrived and recalls conversations with Iftikhar in which he said he could leave his son to grow up without his influence because he was a boy.

He said, if they had had a girl, he would not be able to allow her to grow up "without his guidance in the Islamic ways".

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