KARACHI, Jan 27: Alleged underworld don Shoaib Khan, arrested in Lahore last month, died mysteriously in the Central Prison here early on Thursday morning.

The jail authorities claimed that Shoaib Khan had suffered a heart attack early in the morning. He was taken to the National Institute of Cardio-Vascular Diseases (NICVD) by 3am where he was pronounced dead. Later, at around 5:30am his body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre where it remained till night.

According to hospital sources, a judicial magistrate came in the afternoon and said that it was not his jurisdiction and went back. Another magistrate came in the evening and told the medical board that he would give the authority to doctors after completion of the legal procedure.

The post-mortem, however, could not be performed on the body till late Thursday night. A doctor said: "A medical board has been constituted in the afternoon, and we are waiting for the completion of the legal proceedings by the judicial magistrate.

As and when he authorizes us, we will perform the post-mortem. Due to the delay, the body is decomposing." Shoaib Khan had died in custody three weeks after his arrest, jail officials said.

Khan, in his 40s, had complained of chest pain; he was rushed to a hospital where he died of a heart attack, the deputy superintendent of Central Prison, Amanullah Khan, said and added that an inquiry into his death would be conducted after the autopsy.

However, family sources expressed apprehension that Shoaib Khan had been poisoned to death. They claimed that if an impartial post-mortem was performed and laboratory tests carried out in a transparent manner, it would transpire that Shoaib had not met a natural death.

City police officer Tariq Jamil said Shoaib was allegedly involved in 17 cases of different nature, including murders and keeping unlicensed weapons. "We have submitted charge-sheets in some of the cases to the relevant courts," he added.

According to police, Shoaib Khan had been arrested in Lahore and was brought to the city on Dec 29. The next day, he was produced before a judicial magistrate, central, in a murder case registered by the Pak Colony police.

The police obtained his physical remand in the murder case of Nasir Ali, an overseas Pakistani, who was allegedly killed in 1998 by Shoaib Khan, Zahid Khan and Akram in Gulberg.

Later, the alleged don of the gangland was remanded to police for interrogation in a double murder case of Idrees Preedy and Mohammed Akbar, workers of the Muttahida Quami Movement, on Dec 27, 1996. The same court again remanded Shoaib Khan to police custody for interrogation into a case pertaining to possession of unlicensed arms and ammunition.

Shoaib Khan was booked in the case by the Kalakot police after two rocket launchers and an identical number of hand-grenade seized from a house on a lead given by Khan. He was sent to jail by a court after completion of his physical remand on Jan 25, 2005.

Shoaib Khan on Jan 12,2005, led the police to the grave of Haji Ibrahim, which was dug up and the remains were retrieved in the presence of a medical board, comprising forensic experts. Shoaib was named in the FIR 08/2001 at the Gizri police station on the complaint of Mohammad Yusuf, brother of the victim.