A part-owner of Manchester College of Professional Studies has been linked to two murders in Pakistan. He was, before his unmasking by The Times, living in the UK under an assumed name.

In the records of the Home Office, which for the past three years has made regular payments to the Manchester house where he is claiming asylum with his wife and three children, he is Ahmad Khan, 43. In Mardan, his Pakistani home city in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), he is better known as Mir Ahmad.

Mir Ahmad was a regular visitor to Manchester College of Professional Studies before it closed last summer. Although he has been posing in Britain as an impoverished asylum seeker, The Times has photographs of him sitting in the front office of the college, looking as if he owned the place, which, at least in part, he did.

He not only owned a majority share of the building’s lease but also took a cut of the money paid by each student recruited in NWFP. Mir Ahmad is also, like Fayaz Ali Khan, connected closely to those running the nearby Manchester campus of Bradford College of Professional Studies.

Two days ago, The Times informed the Home Office of his dual identity. Yesterday afternoon he was arrested and is being questioned about alleged immigration offences.

Both Fayaz Ali Khan, who founded and ran the college, and Mir Ahmad, his wealthy friend and fixer, come from Mardan.

Police in Mardan, where Mir Ahmad wields considerable power, have provided The Times with a fast-changing account of the events surrounding the murder of two men in the city in July 2005.

What is certain is that Mir Ahmad left Mardan after the murders, flying to the UK on a visitor’s visa with his wife and two children. After they had arrived in the country, their passports disappeared. He used the name Ahmad Khan and, claiming to have entered the UK illegally in the back of a lorry, made an asylum application. It was refused and he is now appealing. A third child was born in Britain.

The killings that led to his departure from Mardan were linked to a bloody family feud. The two victims were shot dead on July 18, 2005, apparently in revenge for the murder of Mir Ahmad’s father-in-law, Malik Dawar Khan.

Local rumours blamed the killing on a man called Farhad Khan Kashmiri. The Times understands that six months later Farhad Khan Kashmiri and a friend, Waris Khan, were found dead from gunshot wounds close to Mir Ahmad’s house. They are said to have planned to visit the house to insist that Farhad Khan Kashmiri had no involvement in the earlier murder.

Mir Ahmed and his wife’s three brothers, Asif Khan, Naeem Khan and Javed Khan, were in the house at the time of the shootings.

Police in Mardan initially said that Mir Ahmad was cleared of all involvement. Yesterday, their version of the story changed. Now, Mir Ahmad was not even near by when the murders happened. And the killings were not at his house but in public, at “the main bazaar”.

His three brothers-in-law were charged with the two murders, though they appear to remain at large. Mir Ahmed and Fayaz Ali Khan were seen strolling along Stockport Road last week. Two nights ago, both spent a large part of the evening inside the Manchester campus of Bradford College of Professional Studies.

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