A leading councillor has been accused of inflaming race relations after commenting on a police investigation into a Rochdale child sex gang.

Coun Surinder Biant was criticised by colleagues at Wednesday’s (January 26) full council meeting.

He spoke out after police arrested nine men in Rochdale and Heywood in connection with the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 13.

Since then two more people have been arrested.

In an interview with the Observer Coun Biant said he would speak to the ‘Asian community to see if we can give them any help and support in eliminating this’ after the investigation came to light.

But fellow councillors have criticised his comments.

Coun Greg Couzens, leader of the Independent Alliance party, said it was unfair to talk about sexual exploitation in terms of different communities.

He said: "If you knew anything about this issue, you would note it is not simply an Asian problem.

"Your remarks directly make it one and have allowed extremist groups to jump onto a bandwagon.

"There are so many blogs now as a direct consequence of your opportunity to seek publicity."

Coun Dale Mulgrew added: "Coun Biant’s comments have caused a lot of upset to all communities in Rochdale."

Coun Shah Wazir said: "I am really concerned by Coun Biant’s comments.

"We all need to stop assuming a connection between someone’s ethnicity and their religion."

But Coun Biant said he stood by his comments that he was determined to stamp out sexual exploitation in Rochdale.

He added: "I made the comments after being approached for a statement by the Observer in connection with the police investigation.

"I intend to work with council officers and social services to do all we can to stop anything like this happening again."

A seperate event titled 'Jack Straw on Grooming- Who is to Blame?' was also held at the Roti Restaurant on Drake Street, Rochdale last week to debate the issues around grooming and Jack  Straw's comments about the issue recently.

The forum event also came in the backdrop after nine Asian men from Rochdale were jailed  for abuse, drugging, abduction and forcing a girl to have sex for money last year.

Guest speaker at the event, Mazhar Khan from the Islamic group, Hizb ut-Tahrir said: "These issues are part of a wider societal problem where liberal values allow people to experiment with their lives.

"In the past year we have heard of paedophiles operating in nurseries, government reports on over-sexualisation of girls in high street clothing stores, rising teenage pregnancy rates and Home office figures of over 900 women being raped each week across Britain."

Rochdale resident Mohammed Waseem said: "The speakers made me realise that the problem isn’t with the Pakistani/Muslim community but with society as a whole."

Student, Kasim Javed added: "There is clear evidence now to show that comments from mainstream politicians are fuelling the fires for the likes of EDL to use these cases for their own agendas."

Speaking at the event, Taji Mustafa, media spokesperson of Hizb ut-Tahrir objected to the claims that Islam had anything to do with the issue as various newspapers had claimed.

He said: "Islam promotes respect for women regardless of their race, religion and ethnicity. In Islam, you are not allowed to drink, take drugs, engage in pre-marital sex or even have a girlfriend. So how can Islam be blamed for these heinous crimes?"

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