Piran Ditta Khan was arrested in Pakistan in January 2020 and extradited to the UK in April last year
London:
A 75-year-old man extradited from Pakistan was found guilty on Thursday of the murder of a British police officer nearly 20 years ago.
Piran Ditta Khan fled the UK in November 2005 after police officer Sharon Beshenivsky was shot dead while trying to foil a robbery at a travel agency.
The rare shooting death of a police officer on duty in Britain has sparked widespread shock and renewed calls for police to regularly carry firearms.
Khan is the last of seven men to be convicted in connection with the attack in Bradford, northern England.
Prosecutors said the former takeaway boss was the gang’s leader.
Although he did not leave the safety of his lookout vehicle during the raid, he played a “key” role in the planning and knew the loaded firearm would be used.
Prosecutors said that made him guilty of Besheniewski’s murder “as if he had pulled the trigger of that pistol himself.”
Khan was found guilty by a majority of 10 to 1 by jurors at Leeds Crown Court in northern England.
Besheniewski, 38, who had three children and two stepsons, was shot to death on her youngest daughter’s fourth birthday. She had only been a police officer for nine months.
Her female colleague Theresa Milburn was shot in the chest during the incident but survived. Neither officer was armed.
Chief Constable Marc Bowes welcomed the sentence as “the culmination of 18 years of hard work, dogged courage and determination to bring Khan to court”.
He added: “Today our thoughts are as always with Constable Sharon Beshniewski and her family. Sharon went to work to protect the public and along with her colleague Theresa, she responded to a call for help but unfortunately It’s never coming home.”
“This sentence is the culmination of 18 years of hard work, tenacity and determination to bring Khan to court.
“It was truly a team effort and if it hadn’t come from @NCA_UK, @CPSUK, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Pakistani authorities. ” pic.twitter.com/MkPUb0gUCZ— West Yorkshire Police (@WestYorksPolice) April 4, 2024
Khan was arrested in Pakistan in January 2020 and extradited to the UK in April last year.
Six other gang members have previously been jailed in connection with the shooting, including a Somali national who was sentenced to at least 35 years in prison.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
