Rahman Dakait Real Story: The real Rahman Dakait had done all the work for his own mother at the age of 15…

Rahman Dacoit Real Story : ‘Dhurandhar’ The loudest whistles in a film are not blown for a hero’s slow-motion entry or a punchline-filled monologue. They play when Akshaye Khanna quietly enters the frame as Rehman the dacoit, a villain whose very presence electrifies the theatre.

It’s a disturbing applause line that shows how cinema often blurs the line between fascination and horror. Because while Aditya Dhar’s film Rehman presents the dacoit as a scary villain, the real story behind the character is more cruel, complex and disturbing than can be imagined.

Rehman dacoit born in the world of crime in Lyari

Born Abdul Rehman in 1976, Rehman Dacoit grew up in Lyari, one of the oldest and poorest neighborhoods of Karachi – an area long known for crime, gang warfare and a tight crime-police nexus.

According to a BBC report, he was the son of Dad Mohammad and his second wife Khadija. His family was already involved in the underworld. Dad Mohammed and his brothers dealt in drugs and were embroiled in violent rivalry with Iqbal alias Babu Dacoit and Haji Lalu’s gang. Along with the drug trade, an extortion racket was also going on, and a fight to gain control of the area was inevitable.

Former Lyari SP Faiyaz Khan told the BBC, “There was rivalry between several gangs involved in the same business as well as feud over territory. These rivalries often erupted into bloody clashes. In one such clash, Rehman Baloch’s uncle, Taj Mohammad, was killed by the rival Babu Dacoit gang.” Violence was not unusual in Rahman’s world, it was inherited by him.

Childhood lost in bloodshed (Rahman Dakait)

Rehman Dacoit’s foray into the world of crime began at a shockingly young age. At the age of just 13, he stabbed and injured a man who had stopped him from bursting crackers in Lyari. Two years later, he escalated from violence to murder, killing two rival drug peddlers after a feud.

The most disturbing chapter of his life came to light in 1995. Months after escaping from police custody, Rehman shot his mother Khadija in her own home. He told the police that he killed her because “she had become a police informer”.

However, it is believed that he was suspected of having links with a member of a rival gang, a detail which the mobsters are not shy about highlighting.

Arrest, escape and becoming a gang lord

In 1995, Rahman was arrested on charges of possessing weapons and drugs. He spent nearly two and a half years in jail before making a dramatic escape while being taken to court from Karachi jail. He fled to Balochistan, where he began rebuilding his criminal empire with new brutality.

By the early 2000s, Rehman had emerged as one of the most powerful gang lords of Dacoit Lyari. By 2006, he had accumulated immense wealth, property and political influence. He married three times and had 13 children. Reports also claimed that he owned properties not only in Karachi and Balochistan, but also in Iran.

Lyari Gang War and the reign of terror

Rahman’s rise was written in blood. After initially allying with Haji Lalu in running a drugs and gambling racket, this partnership soon broke down, plunging Lyari into unprecedented violence. It is estimated that more than 3,500 people were killed in the gang war that followed.

By the early 2000s, Rahman had eliminated most of the rivals and declared himself the undisputed ‘King’ of Lyari.

Reporting on his rule, The Express Tribune wrote in 2021, “Rehman was involved in extortion, kidnapping, drug trafficking, illegal arms sales and more. For nearly a decade, gang war paralyzed life in Lyari as Rehman and his gang battled with rival Arshad Pappu and his associates.”

It was during this period that Rahman’s ambitions developed. No longer content with ruling the underworld, he rebranded himself as Sardar Abdul Rehman Baloch and formed the People’s Aman Committee.

Lyari has long been a political hotspot, linked to both the MQM and the People’s Party. Here Rahman wanted not only influence but also legitimacy.

As his ambition increased, so did the scale of violence. Lyari Task Force and Chaudhary Aslam
In 2006, the Lyari Task Force was formed under the leadership of Choudhary Aslam to dismantle the gang network that gripped Lyari. In Dhurandhar, this role is played by Sanjay Dutt, who is shown as a ruthless, adept policeman with bullets.

That year the task force reportedly arrested Rehman Dacoit – although the arrest was never officially recorded. Soon after, Chaudhary Aslam allegedly received a call from Asif Ali Zardari, who later became the President of Pakistan.

According to the BBC report, Zardari told them, “Don’t kill him. Don’t do anything wrong. Present the cases in court. Don’t encounter.”

Subsequently, Rehman was reportedly kept under secret detention in the homes of police officers, from where he once again managed to escape, further cementing his image as a man who remained outside the reach of the law.

How did Rehman Dacoit die?

Rehman dacoit’s reign continued till 2009, when the Lyari Task Force tracked him using phone data. According to reports, he was caught with a fake ID near Quetta. When asked to speak to a senior officer, Rehman went to a vehicle and found Chaudhary Aslam inside. He was taken into custody on the spot.

According to the statements, Rehman offered money to settle the matter, but Aslam refused. Rehman dacoit and his three associates were later killed in a police encounter in 2009. Police statements claimed that he was wanted in more than 80 cases, including murder and kidnapping. However, this encounter remained controversial.

Maulana Abdul Majeed Sarbaji, former chairman of the People’s Aman Committee, told The Express Tribune, “Autopsy reports say Rehman was shot from a distance of three feet. People do not die like this in an encounter. It is very sad that the fighting between the two groups continued for seven years and no one intervened, and when the situation became better, they killed Khan Bhai. We do not understand why this happened or the reason behind it.” Who was it?

Aftermath: Funerals and Unanswered Questions

The film ‘Dhurandhar’ ends with the murder of the dacoit Rehman, while Dhurandhar 2, which is scheduled to release in March next year, will reportedly show its aftermath. In real life, Rehman received what is believed to be the largest funeral ever held in Lyari.

His widow filed a petition in the Sindh High Court alleging that the encounter was fake. The court ordered the police to submit a report, but the case was never resolved conclusively. Chaudhry Aslam himself was killed in a Taliban suicide attack in 2014, adding another tragic chapter to Lyari’s violent history.

Villain whose stories will never end

The story of Rehman the dacoit lies at the difficult intersection of crime, politics and power, a reminder of how deeply rooted violence can become when the government ignores it.

Dhurandhar has dramatized his life, but the truth behind the character is more disturbing than the applause he gets in the cinema hall. And perhaps that’s why the applause feels so strange – because they echo a reality that cinema only shows, not creates.