A Pakistani man was convicted on Thursday of murdering a UK police officer in 2005, nearly two decades after the killing.
PC Sharon Beshenivsky was a 38-year-old mother of three who was shot dead by Piran Ditta Khan as she was responding to an armed robbery call.
Khan, 75, who has been wanted by British authorities since 2006, was found guilty by the court. He was the last of seven men involved in the robbery to be convicted.
The incident
The incident unfolded on Nov 18, 2005, when Sharon Beshenivsky along with another constable responded to an alarm call at a travel agency. Upon arrival, they were met with gunfire by three robbers, resulting in Beshenivsky’s fatal shooting and injuries to the ither constables.
Khan was the group’s ringleader and, although he did not leave the safety of a lookout car during the raid, he played a “pivotal” role in planning it and knew that loaded firearms were to be used, asserts the prosecutors at the court.
They told jurors this made him guilty of Beshenivsky’s murder “as surely as if he had pulled the trigger on that pistol himself”.The convict was the only one of the group who was familiar with agency and had used them in the past to send money to family in Pakistan, the court heard.
The stance of the convict
Khan told the court that he had no knowledge that a robbery was going to be carried out, or that weapons were going to be taken. He claimed the business’s owner, Mohammmad Yousaf, owed him £12,000 and that debt collector Hassan Razzaq offered to get his money back after the pair met through a business associate.
Khan said he thought the men Razzaq sent would “intimidate” the staff at staff, or at worst, “slap them”.
Prosecutor Robert Smith KC said Khan’s claim of being defrauded was an “entirely false” attempt to explain why he was in Bradford at the time of the robbery and murder.
The court heard Khan, who was living in Enfield, London, at the time, was driven to Yorkshire by Razzaq on a reconnaissance trip five days before the raid.
The day before the robbery, they travelled up again to a “safe house” where they spent the night.
A witness later told police he had heard the robbers discussing the plot in one of the bedrooms.
Mr Baron said he heard gunman Muzzaker Shah asking Khan: “Uncle, is it safe?” Khan was said to have replied: “Yes, it’s safe. Genuine.”
Jurors heard Shah asked: “How much can we get?” and Khan replied: “Minimum £50,000, maximum target 100 grand.”
The group were said to be “elated” and “confident,” shouting: “Let’s go do it.”
The arrest of Khan-the convict
Dawn’s Atika Rehman reports that the convict fled to Pakistan two months after the murder to evade capture and remained free till he was apprehended in 2020 in Islamabad. While there, his lawyer said Khan wanted to be tried in his home country.
Despite the absence of an extradition treaty, the British and Pakistani authorities worked together to facilitate Khan’s return to the UK in April 2023, where he was arrested and charged.
