Who was Rehman Dakait? Karachi gangster played by Akshaye Khanna in Dhurandhar, murdered his own mother, played football with severed heads, was killed by...

The Aditya Dhar directorial Dhurandhar is led by Ranveer Singh, but it's Akshaye Khanna who's stealing the spotlight. In the ensemble spy thriller, the seasoned actor delivers a standout performance as Rehman Baloch aka Rehman Dakait, the film's main antagonist. In one of the scenes, Akshaye is seen making an electrifying entry as he dances to the track titled FA9LA, made by the Bahraini rapper Flipperachi. This sequence and the song itself has created a frenzy on social media with countless reels and memes.

Who was Rehman Dakait?

The real Rehman Dakait, whose full name was Sardar Abdul Rehman Baloch, was a notorious Pakistani gangster who reigned over Lyari in the 2000s. Born in 1975 to a drug smuggler Daad Muhammad, he entered the world of crime early, joining his father's gang as a drug peddler in his pre-teen years. By the age of 13, he had allegedly committed his first violent act when he stabbed someone. One of the most chilling incidents linked to him occurred when he learnt that his mother Khadija Bibi was allegedly involved with a rival gang member. Consumed by rage, Rehman is said to have killed his mother by slitting her throat. He was just 15 years old at that time. His string of brutal crimes soon earned him the infamous moniker Rehman Dakait.

Rehman Dakait joined Haji Laloo’s gang in the late ’90s and assumed control after Laloo was arrested in 2001. Over the next eight years, he transformed Lyari into his fortress, with his cousin Uzair Baloch and their associate Baba Ladla serving as his key lieutenants. According to a Daily Guardian report, Ladla and Baloch would play football with the severed heads of their opponents at Rehman’s behest to intimidate their rivals and assert dominance. Rehman was killed in a shootout with the Karachi Police in August 2009 during the government’s crackdown on Lyari gangs. He was 34. After his death, Uzair took over the reins of the gang.

Akshaye Khanna in Dhurandhar

Dhurandhar draws on real events to offer a semi-fictionalised take on India's covert war against terror networks in Pakistan. Set in Karachi’s Lyari during the 2000s, the spy thriller shows Akshaye Khanna’s Rehman Dakait ruling Lyrai alongside his cousin and deputy, Uzair Baloch, played by Danish Pandor. Ranveer Singh stars as Hamza Ali Mazari, an undercover Indian spy who infiltrates Rehman’s syndicate, working from within to dismantle the gang while feeding crucial intelligence about their ISI links back to India.

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