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Friends fears over murdered teacher
31/ 8/2004
FRIENDS of a British teacher murdered in Pakistan fear local
police will never get to the bottom of the mystery.
Alan Cox, aged 50, who returned to his Longsight home every summer,
was shot and stabbed by three masked men armed with Kalashnikovs as
he taught an English lesson in the southern Punjab city of
Multan.
Police have interviewed dozens of people but a deadline for
investigating the case has passed and almost three months after his
murder, no-one has been brought to justice.
If it is not solved it will lie on file as an "act of terrorism",
according to Pakistani newspaper The Daily Times.
Multan police have claimed Mr Cox's killer was an ex-lover who
turned on him after he failed to secure him a visa to the UK.
Friends of the teacher expressed fears his killers would never be
brought to justice.
One of them, director of Manchester Community Relations Council,
Khan Mughal, said he feared the police would lose interest in the
case.
"There are so many other murders in Pakistan and police are
notorious for their incompetence I fear they will just abandon the
case," he said.
Commenting on police speculation that there was a sexual element to
the killing Mr Mughal said he had no idea if it were true.
"I knew Alan in Britain and had no indications at all he was gay
and I never met anyone who viewed him in that context."
Cox, who lived on St John's Road, Longsight, first travelled to
Pakistan in 1985. Born in Oldham and educated in the town's Hulme
Grammar School, he trained as an Anglican priest at Durham
University in the 1960s.
During his time as a clergyman he served at a number of churches
across Manchester, leaving and returning to the church at different
points as he questioned his faith.
He was active in Manchester community life in the years before he
emigrated to Pakistan. He taught at a number of Longsight schools
and learned Urdu in the 1980s so he could communicate better with
pupils.
After becoming fluent in Urdu he taught it at adult education and
community centres and gave English classes to Pakistanis who had
just arrived in Manchester.
Mr Cox worked tirelessly to regenerate Longsight in the 1980s and
played a key role in the creation of the Pakistani Community Centre
on Stockport Road.
In 1997 he moved to Pakistan where he gave "open house" language
sessions to students and marked exams for the British Council. He
was a popular teacher who would wear the shalwar kameez although he
did not convert to Islam.
Donald Blackstock, a friend and ex-student of Mr Cox, said: "Alan
was a great teacher who would have had a big impact on a lot of
people.
"He was a very smart, very funny man.
"I last saw him last summer and he was happy - he enjoyed a good
life in Pakistan. His death came completely out of the blue. It
just wasn't something you would ever expect."
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