Two arrested in UK over suspected murder of imam

Two people have been arrested on suspicion of murder over the death of an imam in northern England, police said on Monday.

Jalal Uddin, 64, was found in a children's playground in Rochdale with serious head injuries on Thursday evening.

Uddin is believed to have been on his way home from a friend's house, after earlier visiting a mosque, when he was attacked.

A 21-year-old man and a 17-year-old boy were detained on Monday morning and remain in custody for questioning, according to a police statement.

A 31-year-old man who had been arrested on Friday has been released without charge and eliminated from police enquiries.

“Our investigation is continuing at a quick pace and we have carried out a significant number of enquiries since the tragic events of last Thursday to establish what happened to Jalal,” said Detective Chief Inspector Terry Crompton.

“We have got two people in custody and I hope these arrests… will reassure the public of just how serious we are taking this investigation.”

Police said on Friday that detectives would look at whether the attack was racially motivated but stressed that the investigation was at a very early stage, and said that speculation was “unhelpful”.

Media coverage of the case has been criticised by the chief of Greater Manchester Police, who on Saturday accused the Times newspaper of stoking community tensions by referring to Rochdale in a headline as a “sex grooming town”.

The newspaper also deleted a tweet referring to Rochdale as a “town stricken by grooming gangs”.

"Clearly, horrific murders such as this, have potential to undermine community confidence and create tension between different parts of the community,” said Chief Constable Ian Hopkins in an open letter to the newspaper. 

"Your headline and its irrelevance to this case have the potential to cause community tension. It is also offensive to the thousands of peaceful law abiding Muslims and non-Muslims living in Rochdale, who are shocked by this murder.

The headline was also criticised by local members of parliament and Muslim organisations.

Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk said on Twitter: "This is an awful headline, I hope @thetimes can apologise to Mr Uddin's family and, indeed, the people of Rochdale."

Miqdaad Versi, the assistant general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, said that the Times had "consistently promoted bigoted stories”.

The Rochdale Council of Mosques released a brief "community announcement" on its Twitter feed which said: "Pls remain calm, let GMP complete their investigations."

In a statement on Facebook, the Jalalia Jaame Masjid mosque in Rochdale said it would “wait for the facts to be established by the police”.