A 28-year-old man was blasted with both barrels of a sawn off shotgun in a “cowardly” drugs-related attempt to execute him, a jury at Bradford Crown Court was told.

Nadeem Anwar prepared to die when he saw Ziauraman Khan struggling to reload the weapon after shooting him twice in the body, it is alleged.

Khan, 26, denies attempting to murder Mr Anwar in Parkway, West Bowling, Bradford, at around 10.30pm on April 17.

He also pleads not guilty to an alternative charge of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm and to possession of a prohibited weapon, a sawn off shotgun.

Prosecutor Gerald Hendron yesterday told the trial that Khan, of Springmill Street, West Bowling, was known locally as Zahur, Russian or Rush.

Mr Hendron alleged that the shooting “has its background in drugs,” saying that Khan himself was shot in the back of the legs on April 2.

Mr Hendron said Khan had received a large quantity of heroin on April 1 but claimed the drugs had been“robbed” off him. He tried to kill Mr Anwar because he believed he knew something about it.

The jury was told that Mr Anwar, of Parkway, held up his arm to protect his face and took a side-on blast from the shotgun. He was treated in hospital for pellet wounds to his stomach, right lung, chest wall and hand.

Mr Hendron said: “It is the prosecution’s case that Ziauraman Khan attempted to execute Nadeem Anwar in a cowardly manner by running up to him from behind with a double barrelled sawn off shotgun and discharging the gun twice at relatively close quarters, not at his lower limbs to punish, but at his upper body to kill.”

The jury was told that Mr Anwar had just parked up when a man came at him from bushes with a gun.

It is alleged that he recognised “Zahur” from school and because they lived in the same area.

Mr Anwar was struck in the arm and back and when he saw Khan trying to reload, he “resigned himself to the fact that he was going to die.” But the defendant struggled with the gun and Mr Anwar fled to a friend’s house on Martlett Drive.

An ambulance and the police armed response unit were called.

Mr Hendron said Khan phoned Mr Anwar before the shooting, saying: “Whoever has the drugs will get it. £60k is not a joke.”

The trial continues.