The three suspects surrendered shortly after the shooting.
Atiq Ahmed, a former member of the Indian Parliament, was in handcuffs, under police escort during a routine medical examination when his attackers opened fire. He is serving a life sentence after a conviction last month for the 2006 kidnapping of lawyer Umesh Pal — a witness in a separate murder case. He said he was facing hundreds of other charges, including for alleged murder and assault, although he had no other convictions. His brother also faces criminal charges.
The Ahmeds, members of India’s Muslim minority, were killed amid a throng of questioning reporters. Police moved quickly to stop the apparent attackers, including at least one chanting “Jai Shri Ram,” or “Hail Lord Ram” — a religious phrase that has become a Hindu nationalist slogan, sometimes heard in mobs carrying out attacks on Muslims. A police official told the Guardian that the three suspects were carrying camera equipment, a microphone with a network logo and fake press badges.
Atiq Ahmed’s son Asad Ahmed became killed days earlier in a police encounter in Uttar Pradesh. Atiq Ahmed’s last words were in response to a reporter who asked why he was not at the funeral: “They didn’t bring us, so we didn’t go.”
At the root of the phenomenon of encounter killings, as they are called in India, and why they are widely accepted, is the public’s lack of faith in the law and order system, said Milan Vaishnav, director of the South Asia Program at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“The average person on the street understands that all steps in this kind of rule-of-law supply chain are deeply compromised in a fundamental way,” he said. There are often corrupt police, under-resourced prosecutors, and a delayed justice process — meaning many suspected criminals are never convicted of the crimes they committed, he added.
“These kinds of killings become shortcuts,” Vaishnav said. “They are widely accepted as part and parcel of a kind of modern policing.” And, he added, the ruling government – which sometimes celebrated vigilante justice – was able to sell these killings under the premise that “Well, in the end we get the result we want.”
Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, has developed a notorious reputation for gangland violence as well as a long history of extrajudicial vigilante violence carried out by local authorities. Under the leadership of Yogi Adityanath, the right-wing Hindu nationalist chief minister of the state, Uttar Pradesh was seen a surge in such encounters with the police.
In Uttar Pradesh, “politics has always been closely related to power, crime and violence, and the criminal justice system has been repeatedly distorted by powerful people,” said Raja Bagga, assistant director of the Criminal Justice clinic. of Jindal Global Law School. Majoritarianism only fueled this trend, he added.
While Adityanath’s supporters have cheered on the chief minister’s supposed tough approach to law and order, his opponents accused him of inciting religious tensions and creating a climate of impunity.
After Atiq Ahmed’s son — who is a prime suspect in the February killing of Umesh Pal — was killed in a police encounter last week, the Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh tweeted his “congratulations” to the region’s special task force. “This is the fate deserved by the killers of Advocate Mr. Umesh Pal and the police personnel,” his tweet read in Hindi.
Sanjay Prasad, Adityanath’s principal secretary, did not respond to a request for comment on the killings.
Politicians and rights advocates have called the killings a sign of deep-rooted problems.
Kapil Sibal, a prominent lawyer and member of Parliament, said on Twitter that there were “two murders”: “1) Atiq Ahmed and brother Ashraf 2) Rule of law.”
Asaduddin Owaisi, the leader of AIMIM, an Indian Muslim political party, called for a Supreme Court investigation and the removal from service of the police at the scene.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted that he was “shocked by the wanton anarchy and total breakdown of law and order in Uttar Pradesh.”
“It is shameful that the perpetrators have now taken the law into their own hands, unconcerned by the presence of the police and media,” he said.
