Sharon Beshenivsky murderer’s 15 years in hiding: How cop killer fled to Pakistan after gunning down PC and ‘repeatedly faked his own death in bid to hoodwink British police’ before he was finally arrested in Islamabad

The killer who murdered PC Sharon Beshenivsky fled to Pakistan after gunning down the cop and helped build a school and mosque while in hiding before his arrest in Islamabad to face justice. 

Piran Ditta Khan, 75, should spend the rest of his life behind bars for the murder after escaping justice for more than a decade. 

The mastermind of the armed robbery in which the West Yorkshire officer was shot dead was found guilty of her murder yesterday, the last of the seven-strong gang to be convicted.

The mother-of-three, 38, was gunned down at point blank range – and her colleague PC Teresa Milburn, 37, seriously wounded – by robbers fleeing a travel agency in Bradford in November 2005.

Khan, a bankrupt takeaway restaurant boss with a history of assault convictions, fled the country on a flight from Heathrow to Islamabad two months after the ill-fated raid. 

Khan should spend the rest of his life behind bars for the murder after escaping justice for nearly 20 years

PC Sharon Beshenivsky was fatally shot in November 2005 as she and her colleague responded to a report of a robbery in Bradford, West Yorkshire

With two of the robbers already in custody, he knew it was only a matter of time before he joined them. 

He left his wife and six children behind at their home in Ilford, east London and abandoned advanced plans to open a new takeaway restaurant in Aberdeen. 

With no extradition treaty with Pakistan, Khan was effectively safe in his native country, at least for the time being.

Given his notoriety, it wasn’t long before West Yorkshire Police were informed of his whereabouts, but they could do nothing about it.

While on the run, Khan even faked his own death – with British police receiving ‘intelligence’ claiming Khan had died in Pakistan, according to The Mirror. 

It took 14 years for an extradition process to be established and relations with the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to improve sufficiently for Khan’s days on the run to end.

Initially Khan joined his brother in the village of Kiri Afghana, near Jhelum, where he was born.

He convinced his family he was innocent and with funds from the UK he was involved in the construction of a primary school and started building a mosque.

When he feared arrest by the Pakistani authorities amid improved relations with the UK he fled north to live with a friend’s relatives in the city of Mardan.

With the risk of arrest apparently receding again, he moved to the capital Islamabad and started a property business with a cousin in the prime development area of Bahria Town.

But behind the scenes efforts at the highest level of government to seek agreement on extraditing criminals were soon to bear fruition.

Ironically, it was another murder in Bradford that paved the way for Khan’s eventual return.

Sharon was 38 when she was killed on November 18, 2005

Her colleague Teresa Milburn (pictured) was shot at point-blank range and was injured during the ordeal but survived

PC Beshenivsky’s husband Paul was not in court to witness the moment justice was finally done, but he is expected to attend the sentencing hearing.

Khan’s conviction fulfils the pledge given to Paul by the detective leading the investigation on the day PC Beshenivsky, also a mother to two step-children, was brutally murdered.

Former detective superintendent Andy Brennan said: ‘On the day this happened I met Paul Beshenivsky and his family and gave a commitment that we would find everybody involved and they would be brought before the courts. I made a promise and I’m just so pleased with the conviction of Piran Ditta Khan I have fulfilled that.’

PC Beshenivsky, a rookie cop with only nine months experience, was murdered on her daughter Lydia’s fourth birthday and the police chief recalled going to see the family in a house filled with cards and presents and a little girl waiting for her mother to come home.

Mr Brennan, who has since retired from the force, said it was ‘very humbling’ to witness how Mr Beshenivsky ‘controlled himself in front of the children having been given the news of his wife’s death’. 

‘It was an emotional time,’ he said. ‘I’m a father, but, for me, in that position at that time, I couldn’t show my emotions because Paul was looking at me to tell him what was going on and what we were going to do.’