Arrest made 27 years after Welsh market trader was shot
A MAN has been arrested in Pakistan almost three decades after the shooting of a market trader in Wales.
Mohammad “Bobby” Basharat is suspected of killing Jaswant Singh Sandhu in 1995 in Blackwood.
The National Crime Agency said Pakistani authorities found the 49-year-old suspect under a false identity.
Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency said the man was brought before a court in Islamabad and remanded in custody.
The BBC reports that Mr Sandhu, a father-of-two, died in hospital after being shot with a pistol following a row at a clothes stall in a market, reportedly about the price of T-shirts.
The killing in May 1995 featured on the BBC Crimewatch programme.
Mr Basharat lived in Oldham, Lancashire, but worked at the market in South Wales three times a week, the BBC reports.
Sheikh Zubair Ahmad from the FIA told the broadcaster that the suspect
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was declared a fugitive by UK police and his arrest came after cooperation with the UK authorities.
The suspect had reportedly been running businesses including a recruitment agency in the city of Rawalpindi.
According to the FIA official, he was from the Mirpur district of Pakistan-administered Kashmir and after coming to Pakistan he got a new ID card bearing the name Zamir Ali.
A Gwent Police spokesperson said: “A 49-year-old man was arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of murder in connection with an investigation into the death of a man in Blackwood in 1995. Inquiries are ongoing and work continues, alongside the National Crime Agency and authorities in Pakistan, to secure his extradition to the UK where he may face further court proceedings.”