LONDON: A 75-year-old man extradited from Pakistan was found guilty Thursday of murdering a British police officer nearly 20 years ago.
Piran Ditta Khan fled the UK in November 2005 after constable Sharon Beshenivsky was killed while trying to foil a robbery at a travel agency.
The rare shooting death of an on-duty police officer in Britain has sparked widespread shock and renewed calls for police to carry guns on a daily basis.
Khan is the last of seven men involved in the attack in Bradford, northern England, to be convicted.
Prosecutors said the former takeaway boss was the ringleader.
He did not leave the safety of his guard van during the attack, but played a “vital” role in planning the attack and knew a loaded firearm would be used.
Prosecutors said that he had pulled the trigger.
Khan was found guilty by a 10-1 majority of the jury at Leeds Crown Court in northern England.
Beshenivsky, 38, had three children and two stepchildren, and was shot dead on her youngest daughter’s fourth birthday. He had only been a police officer for 9 months.
Her female colleague Teresa Milburn was shot in the chest during the incident but she survived. None of the officers had weapons.
Piran Ditta Khan was arrested in Pakistan in January 2020 and extradited to the UK in April 2023.
Six other gang members have already been jailed in connection with the shooting, including a Somali national who was sentenced to a minimum of 35 years in jail.
