- By Geeta Pandey
- BBC News, Delhi
Atiq Ahmed, a former MP and convicted criminal, was killed on Saturday night
It was all over in less than a minute.
Footage from Saturday night shows mafia don-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed getting out of the back of a police jeep near a hospital in the city of Prayagraj, also known as Allahabad.
A burly man, Ahmed, a former MP and convicted criminal, is helped by a policeman and his brother Ashraf. The brothers were led by a chain attached to their handcuffs.
As they start walking, surrounded by a ring of police constables, they are surrounded by local TV reporters – among them gunmen posing as journalists.
A second later, a gun was pulled to his head, his white turban was pulled from his head as he fell to the ground. A few moments later, his brother was also shot.
The two armed men and another man immediately surrendered to the police.
The Uttar Pradesh state government has ordered an investigation, but Saturday night’s brutal killing has unleashed strong criticism from mainstream local and national politicians who say it undermines law and order there.
Lawyer and politician Kapil Sibal said there had been “two murders” in Uttar Pradesh – “one, by Atiq and brother Ashraf and two, by Rule of Law”.
Vikram Singh, former director general of the Uttar Pradesh state police, told the BBC that Ahmad’s killing was unacceptable. “Death in custody is bad enough, murder is worse,” he said.
The forensic team examined the place where the Ahmed brothers were killed
To say Ahmed is a controversial figure is an understatement.
The 60-year-old was born into a poor family in Prayagraj and dropped out of school, but over the years he amassed great wealth, enjoyed political patronage and power and wielded enormous influence in city of his birth and more.
Starting in 1989, he was elected five times as a legislator to the state assembly from the city, and was also elected to parliament from the Phulpur constituency in 2004.
Mr Singh describes him as a sort of “Robin Hood, a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde type of character” who “spends a lot to help poor people – paying for weddings, giving them money on Eid celebration, and helps poor women buy school uniforms and books for their children.”
But this persona was unearthed because Ahmed was accused of kidnappings, murders, extortion and land grabbing.
More than 100 cases have been registered against him and he is said to be involved in many more “but the victims are too afraid to file complaints”, he added.
For more than two decades Ahmed has had spells in prison but but he kept his swing in the underworld of Uttar Pradesh and ensured that his men were protected.
But after the regional Samajwadi Party cut ties with him and the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in the state Ahmed’s influence began to wane.
He was arrested for the attack in 2017 and later transferred to a prison in the western state of Gujarat.
The latest action against him began in February when footage emerged showing a group of men killing Umesh Pal, a key witness in the 2005 killing of Raju Pal, a lawmaker belonging to the regional Bahujan Samaj Party. The Ahmed brothers were accused of involvement in Pal’s murder.
The killing in February was captured on video that set off a chain of events that left Ahmed and several members of his family and supporters dead, his wife running with a bounty on his head, two of his sons in jail and the remaining two sons who are minors in government protection homes.
Ahmed was brought to Prayagraj to face charges in the case after India’s Supreme Court last month refused to hear his petition alleging threats to his life from the police. His brother was also brought to the city from a prison in another district in the state.
On Thursday, his 19-year-old son Asad and an aide were killed by police in a so-called encounter – with accusations flying that they were shot dead in a premeditated murder.
Many parts of Prayagraj were a ghost town on Sunday morning. The main markets in the old city – usually bustling with activity at this time of year as Muslims celebrate the Eid festival – were deserted.
Police vans and officers are deployed on almost every street. Internet services are down in most parts. And locals are reluctant to talk to the media or say anything about the killings.
image source, UP POLICE HANDOUT
Asad, teenage son of Atiq Ahmed, was killed by the police on Thursday
A 40-year-old Muslim man, who did not want to be named, told the BBC that people were shocked.
“How can somebody be killed in front of the media and the police? He was a convicted criminal I agree, but that doesn’t mean that he can be shot like that. What about the rule of law?” he asked.
“Many of us are wondering if he was killed because he was a Muslim. I don’t know if that’s true, but this incident is scaring the city. We deserve better.”
Mahant Raju Das, head of the Hanumangadhi temple in the town of Ayodhya, however, said such incidents should not be viewed through a sectarian lens.
“Criminals have no religion or caste. I appeal to all politicians not to look at crime through a Hindu-Muslim lens,” he said, adding that “this is a regrettable incident and raises questions in the situation of law and order in the state” .
“There are still many mafias in the state. But they should not be killed like this, they should be imprisoned so that they realize their sins.”
Additional reporting by Ankit Srinivas from Prayagraj
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