By Shaun Murphy-
Former boxing champ, Amir Khan has revealed that he was targeted by a man who robbed his expensive £72,000 in a pre-meditated attack.
The 35-year-old posted on Twitter that he and his wife, Faryal Makhdoom, were safe after an incident in which he was confronted by two men in Leyton, East London and stole his watch.
Crucially, Khan said he believes he knows who set up the attack, adding that he has given the name to police.
Khan, an olympic silver medalist in 2004, said he was targeted as he left a restaurant in Leyton, and was convinced somebody in the restaurant orchestrated the attack. He went as far as suggesting that those who set up the attack were aware of his movements, and likely to be part of his inner circle.
Khan tweeted: “Just had my watch taken off me at gun point in East London, Leyton. I crossed the road with Faryal, luckily she was few steps behind me. Two men ran to me, he asked for my watch whilst having a gun pointed in my face. The main thing is we’re both safe.”
The Metropolitan police confirmed an investigation had been launched, saying in a statement: “Police were called at 2115 on Monday, April 18 to High Road, Leyton. A man aged in his 30s is alleged to have been approached by two males who threatened him with a firearm, before stealing his watch and fleeing. There were no reports of any shots fired or any injuries.
“Police responded and conducted an area search. At this very early stage there have been no arrests. An investigation has begun and police are following a number of enquiries.” He said: “I just had my watch taken off me at gun point in East London, Leyton – outside Sahara Grill.
In Instagram post, his wife, Faryal Makhdoom , shared a video of two men getting out of a Mercedes before making approaching her and her husband
In the post, titled ‘footage of last night’s robbery’, the 30-year-old influencer, who was out for dinner with Khan at the time, said: ‘Two men coming out of the car… they knew exactly what time we walked out.
‘Seems like a set up to me, considering we didn’t even post where we were.
‘It makes me sick to the stomach to know someone sitting in the restaurant was probably the one plotting this.’
His wife suggested the robbery may have occurred because Amir Khan had been posing on Instagram with the expensive watch visible on his wrist, meaning whoever set the robbery up may have been jealous of Khan, who may in their envious heart have considered to be extravagant.
The boxer and his wife spoke of their ordeal to The Mailonline. Faryal Markdoom said ‘Amir is so good to his fans, and he’ll stop for photos and stuff like that. But I had told him: You can’t just stop for anybody on the street, especially if you’re so well known. You have to be careful about who you stop for. You don’t know who these people are or what their intentions are.
‘They must have decided to steal Amir’s watch because he’ll wear T-shirts in photos that he puts on Instagram, and so it’s visible on his wrist.
Khan added: ‘100% this whole attack was premediated. I was specifically targeted, the robbers knew where I was and were alerted to this by somebody who knew my movements.’
‘But what I can’t work out is: How did they know we’d leave the Saharan Grill when we would? How could they have possibly known we would come out w.
‘The two guys jumped out of the car. I was just a little bit behind Amir, so I didn’t really know what was happening to start with. But then I realized that the guy closest to Amir had put the gun up to his head, and a second guy behind him was also carrying a gun,’ Miss Makhdoom continued.
‘It was so so scary, afterwards I was just screaming. Amir really had to calm me down.
‘He told me afterwards that the guy had told him: Give me your watch or I’ll shoot you. Amir said that he might have tried to have taken the gun out of his hands, but quickly saw the guy behind him was also carrying a gun. And he just couldn’t risk doing anything.
‘When you’re a parent, you can’t risk doing anything that would put yourself in harm’s way like that. But these guys just didn’t seem to care about that. What would make a person do that? How could they do that to us? All for a watch?
‘Honestly it has made me think about getting more security. That’s not something I’d have considered before, but it’s just so dangerous out there.’
Faryal added: ‘Police are really trying, they’ve been supportive and we’ve given them CCTV of the robbery. We’re just trying to get all this out there so we can find these guys as soon as possible.’
Khan said: ‘He’s from the East London area and sees himself as a gangster. I’ve given the police his name, and hopefully they will be taking action very soon.
‘I’m sick of all this gangster stuff. That is not my world. I’m a hard-working family man who wants to earn good money and live a decent life. I didn’t deserve to be robbed like this; nobody does.’
Khan said: ‘Somebody who was part of my inner circle did this to me. He’s threatened me in the past and he’s been going around bragging that he ordered the hit on me.
‘He jumped on my bandwagon when I was a pro-boxer but when I retired, he jumped off. Sadly, there have been a lot of people like that.’
The youngest ever British olympian at 17, Khan went on to become two time world champion, also becoming the youngest British boxer to win a world title when he won the WBA title at the age of 22.
Khan, who owns his own charity called Amir Khan Foundation, is also a promoter and sponsor, and also presides over Pakistan’s Amir Khan Academy.He is worth an estimated £29m, after a number of big money fights over the years.