Police and media encompass the realm the place Gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf had been shot in entrance of the Motilal Nehru medical school in, Prayagraj, India, Saturday, April 15, 2023.
Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP
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Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP
Police and media encompass the realm the place Gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf had been shot in entrance of the Motilal Nehru medical school in, Prayagraj, India, Saturday, April 15, 2023.
Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP
LUCKNOW, India — A former Indian lawmaker convicted of kidnapping and dealing with homicide and assault costs was shot lifeless alongside along with his brother in a dramatic assault that was caught stay on TV in northern India, officers stated Sunday.
Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf had been underneath police escort on their strategy to a medical checkup at a hospital on Saturday night time when three males posing as journalists focused the 2 brothers from shut vary in Prayagraj metropolis in Uttar Pradesh state.
The boys rapidly surrendered to the police after the capturing, with no less than one among them chanting “Jai Shri Ram,” or “Hail Lord Ram,” a slogan that has grow to be a battle cry for Hindu nationalists of their marketing campaign in opposition to Muslims.
Uttar Pradesh is ruled by India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Get together.
Police officer Ramit Sharma stated the three assailants got here on bikes posing as journalists.
“They managed to succeed in near Atiq and his brother on the pretext of recording a byte and fired at them from shut vary. Each sustained bullet accidents on the pinnacle,” he stated. “All of it occurred in seconds.”
A number of movies of Saturday’s capturing went viral on social media. It was initially broadcast stay on native TV channels because the brothers spoke to media whereas being taken to the hospital.
The footage exhibits somebody pulling a gun near Atiq Ahmad’s head. As he collapses, his brother can also be shot. The video exhibits assailants repeatedly firing on the two males after each fell on the bottom.
Atiq Ahmad, 60, was jailed in 2019 after he was convicted of kidnapping a lawyer, Umesh Pal, who had testified in opposition to him as as a witness within the killing of a lawmaker in 2005. In February, Pal was additionally killed.
On Thursday, Atiq Ahmad’s teenage son and one other man, each of whom had been blamed for Pal’s demise, had been killed by police in what was described as a shootout.
Two weeks earlier, Atiq Ahmad had petitioned the Indian Supreme Courtroom for defense, saying there was an “open, direct and fast menace to his life” from state functionaries of Uttar Pradesh, in response to media experiences. However the court docket declined to intervene and as a substitute requested his lawyer to strategy the native state court docket.
Atiq Ahmad was a state lawmaker 4 instances and was additionally elected to India’s Parliament in 2004 from Uttar Pradesh’s Phulpur constituency, as soon as represented by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
He confronted greater than 100 prison circumstances and was among the many first politicians from Uttar Pradesh to be prosecuted underneath the stringent Gangster Act within the late Eighties. He additionally cultivated a Robin Hood picture amongst largely Muslim constituents and used to financially assist many poor households.
However he was additionally criticized for leveraging his political clout to develop a syndicate that was an lively participant in the true property market amid allegations of compelled seize of properties and different crimes.
Opposition events criticized the killings as a safety lapse.
