Sohrab Khan

Case overview

Sohrab Khan was a Pakistani-born physician who obtained his medical training in the United States and specialized in cardiology. He served as a fellow at Baylor University Medical Center Hospital in Dallas, Texas, during the 1970s, and returned to his native city of Lahore in 1981. At age forty-two, he began a month-long homicidal binge in which he slaughtered thirteen victims.

Background

Sohrab Khan returned to Lahore in 1981 after serving as a fellow at Baylor University Medical Center Hospital in Dallas, Texas in the 1970s. He was described as having admitted nine of the murders.

Investigation

Punjab Province Police Chief Sabahuddin Jami described Khan as:

"a maniac or saboteur who killed for the fun of it" and added: "He is a beast, not a human being."

A search of Khan’s home turned up a cache of sophisticated unlicensed weapons, several false passports, and sketches of various murder scenes drawn from memory.

Police said Khan shot his victims with a variety of weapons and that his victims included mainly night watchmen, rickshaw drivers, and laborers.

Arrest

Khan was arrested on December 11, 1986. Police said his driver's license was found on a motorcycle at the scene, and that led to his arrest.

Trial

The disposition was not reported by Pakistani authorities.

Sentencing

No sentencing information was provided.

Outcome

Khan was charged with thirteen murders. He quickly obliged police with confessions in nine of the cases.

Timeline

• November 13, 1986 — Khan stalked four victims: a dogcatcher, an unidentified man, a service station attendant, and a night watchman, while circling Lahore's Mall Road on a motorcycle.
• November 20, 1986 — Khan shot two night watchmen and a rickshaw driver, dumping their bodies in a canal.
• December 11, 1986 — Khan was arrested and charged with thirteen murders; he admitted nine of the murders.
• Tuesday (timeline reference within the provided narrative) — Police said Khan last killed on Tuesday when he gunned down a pharmacist in a drugstore.

The offence

Khan was charged with thirteen murders committed in the past month.

Four victims were killed on the evening of November 13 while Khan cruised Mall Road on a motorcycle: a dogcatcher, a night watchman, a laborer, and an unidentified transient. Police said he also killed a dog catcher, an unidentified man, a service station attendant, and a night watchman on Nov. 13.

A week later, Khan killed two more night watchmen and a rickshaw driver, and police said he dumped their bodies in a canal. Police said the doctor killed again Nov. 20 by shooting two night watchmen and a rickshaw driver and dumping their bodies in a canal.

Khan was also charged with killing a hotel waiter, shot because he failed to bring his order quickly enough.

Police said Khan last killed when he gunned down a pharmacist in a drugstore.

The article narrative said police did not release details of the other murders.

Other details

Khan was described as a U.S. citizen who returned to Lahore in 1981. A spokesman at Baylor said Khan had taken a two-year program of specialized training. Khan was described as forty-two at the time of his arrest.