The journalist was gunned down in Miranshah, North Waziristan, in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). He was on his way home when gunned down by armed men waiting in a vehicle with tinted windows of the kind widely used by militants open fire at his car, killing instantly.

Khan had been a journalist for 15 years and had worked for TV news channel GEO and the Jang newspaper group. He had also recently been elected president of the Miranshah press club.