Pakistani national extradited on charges of UK cop's murder

LONDON: A 74-year-old man has been extradited from Pakistan and charged with the murder of Police Constable Sharon Beshenivsky in Bradford 18 years ago.

Piran Ditta Khan was brought back to the UK on Tuesday and taken into custody at a West Yorkshire police station where he was charged with killing the 38-year-old officer on November 18, 2005.

He is also charged with robbery, two counts of possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and two counts of possession of a prohibited weapon.

He will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, April 13.

A Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spokesman said that the charges were authorised in 2006, leading to the issuing of the extradition warrant.

Joanne Jakymec, the chief crown prosecutor for the CPS, said: “A suspect wanted in connection with the murder of Pc Sharon Beshenivsky in Bradford in 2005 has been extradited to the UK from Pakistan thanks to the continued hard work of prosecutors in the CPS’s extradition and international units.

“Since Piran Ditta Khan was arrested in Pakistan in 2020, our specialist prosecutors have been working closely with our Pakistani partners to complete the legal process in the country so that he could be extradited back to England to face the allegations from almost 20 years ago.”

Pc Beshenivsky, who had three children and two stepchildren, was fatally shot as she responded with colleague PC Teresa Millburn to an alarm at a travel agent in Morley Street, Bradford.

Pc Millburn was also seriously injured.