Suspect in 2005 UK police slaying extradited from Pakistan

A 74-year-old man extradited from Pakistan appeared in a London court Thursday to face a murder charge in the death of a police officer who was fatally shot while responding to a bank robbery almost two decades ago.

Piran Ditta Khan attended a brief hearing at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court. He is charged with killing Constable Sharon Beshenivsky, 38, who was gunned down outside a travel agency in the northern England city of Bradford on Nov. 18, 2005.

Beshenivsky’s colleague Constable Theresa Milburn was seriously injured.

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Khan also faces charges of robbery, two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon.

Beshenivsky’s slaying shocked Britain, where most police officers do not carry guns. Six men were arrested but Khan, who was suspected of being the armed gang’s organizer, had fled abroad.

U.K. prosecutors authorized charges against Khan in 2006, and he was arrested in Pakistan in 2020 on a British extradition warrant. Prosecutors announced Wednesday that he had been flown to the U.K.