Aftab Ahmed Khan

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Aftab Ahmed Khan

Aftab Ahmed Khan is a police chief turned politician from Mumbai, India, noted for his "encounter" killings of gangsters from the Mumbai organized crime syndicates.

An officer of the Indian Police Service, Khan was the Inspector General of Police, Maharashtra in the 1980s. He is the author of The Surrender^[1], which deals with the shootout at the Lokhandwala, Andheri, in which six gangsters including Maya Dolas and Dilip Buwa were killed in 1992.

In the mid-1990s, Khan sought to build on his media image by joining politics. Initially expressing interest in joining the Samajwadi Party, he eventually went with the Janata Dal, with whom he stood elections in the Mumbai North-west constituency in 1998^[2].

Currently he helps run a private security agency that he set up in 1996 along with his son^[3].

[edit] Shootout at Lokhandwala

The Lokhandwala Complex was an upper end middle-class housing area in Andheri, Mumbai, where Shiv Sena criminal-politician Gopal Rajwani had purchased a flat for mega-mobster Dawood Ibrahim^[4]. On November 16, 1991, Dawood henchmen Maya Dolas and Dilip Buwa, along with four others, were in this apartment when they were surrounded by Khan.

The ensuing fourteen hour shootout, much of it publicized live on news channels, made Khan a household name. The incident was made into a movie in 2007, Shootout at Lokhandwala, with Sanjay Dutt playing the role of Khan^[5]. Khan himself also appears in this movie, acting as his former boss, Police Commissioner S. Ramamurthy. About the actual event, Khan has said:

Maya was abusing me a lot when we went to capture him. I asked him to surrender, yet he abused me nonstop. He had escaped from police custody earlier and had created fear in the minds of people.^[3]

However, Khan was subsequently accused of having carried out the murder on behalf of Dawood Ibrahim^[2], from whose gang Maya Dolas and Dilip Buwa were said to have defected in 1989^[6]. The defection by these two Hindu gangsters, together with Chhota Rajan's alienation, led to the increasing Muslim polarization of Dawood Ibrahim's D-Company gang, and eventually, the 12 March 1993 Bombay Bombings.

It was alleged that Dawood had tipped off Khan about the whereabouts of Maya and Buwa, leading to the shootout.

Allegations were also levelled that the anti-terrorist squad (ATS) which had participated in the encounter had made off with Rs. 70 lakh cash found with Maya Dolas. Khan himself was also charged with corruption. Four inquiries were instituted against Khan, and although he was cleared in three of them, his controversial reputation remains.

Khan has rejected these allegations, saying "Those were Dawood's men that I killed in that encounter"^[2], but reports in the media do indicate that these men may have parted company with Dawood Ibrahim^[6].

[edit] Role in Mumbai Riots

In the communal Bombay Riots of 1993, Khan's secular credentials were attacked by the Shiv Sena, and he was charged of indiscriminately firing against Hindus. However, his senior, former police commissioner Srikant Bapat, deposing with the Srikrishna Commission probing the riots, testified that Khan was "a true professional and not a communal officer. "^[2].

In 1995, when the Shiv Sena-BJP combine came to power, Khan was transferred to the relatively less important posting at Nagpura Naxalite area, and his promotion to the rank of Additional Director General of Police was stalled in March 1996. The Sena-BJP Government was not happy with him because of his Secular Role in the Bombay Riots. Finally Khan Resigned. He then retired from the force to try his hand at politics.

While the media glare on the Lokhandwala shootout made him famous, Khan's most dangerous encounter was the killing of Khalistani terrorists in 1992; "Those terrorists were trained in Pakistan and it was a challenge to kill them."^[3]