A former Indian politician, Atiq Ahmed, who was convicted of kidnapping and was being escorted by police, was shot dead along with his brother, Ashraf, on live TV in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Ahmed was speaking to reporters when he was approached by three men posing as journalists, who then pulled a gun close to his head and fired. After the incident, the men surrendered to the police and were taken into custody. Earlier in the week, Ahmed’s teenage son, Asad, was shot dead by the police.
Ahmed had been charged with dozens of cases, including murder, kidnapping, and extortion, over the past two decades. He was sentenced to life in prison in March of this year by a local court for kidnapping. In the past, he had claimed that his life was under threat from the police. The incident has sparked outrage, with experts questioning how a man could be killed in front of the media and the police.
Ahmed had a long and controversial political career, winning his first election as an independent candidate in 1989. He later became a state lawmaker and then an MP in the federal election of 2004. However, he lost all subsequent elections, and in 2019, he was ordered by India’s top court to be moved to a jail in Gujarat after he was found to be planning attacks on a businessman from prison.
Ahmed and his brother were being questioned in the February murder of Umesh Pal, a key witness in the 2005 murder of Raju Pal, a lawmaker belonging to the regional Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Umesh Pal was killed in February this year, and Ahmed’s teenage son, Asad, was named as one of the main suspects. Asad and another man were killed by the police earlier this week in what was described as a shootout.
The incident has raised questions about the prevalence of extrajudicial killings in Uttar Pradesh, with more than 180 people facing various charges having been killed by the police in the state in the past six years. Rights activists accuse the police of carrying out these killings, while the state’s government denies the accusations. The police usually refer to them as “encounters,” but many say they are staged confrontations that almost always end with dead criminals and unscathed police.
In response to the incident, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered a judicial probe into the killings and banned large gatherings in Uttar Pradesh to ensure peace. Opposition parties have criticized the killings as a security lapse, with the leader of the Samajwadi Party, Akhilesh Yadav, tweeting that “crime has reached its peak in UP and the morale of the criminals is high.” He also added that “an atmosphere of fear is being created among the public, and it seems that some people are deliberately creating such an atmosphere.”
Overall, the incident highlights the deep-seated problems of crime and corruption in Indian politics and raises questions about the government’s commitment to the rule of law.