Former Indian legislator Atiq Ahmed, brother shot dead on live TV

World
By William

A former member of the Indian Parliament convicted of kidnapping has been shot dead along with his brother on live TV while in police custody in the northern city of Prayagraj, raising questions about the rule of law in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

The gunmen, posing as journalists, fired multiple shots at Atiq Ahmed and former state legislator Ashraf Ahmed on Saturday as they were handcuffed to the hospital for a medical checkup, authorities said.

Three suspects quickly surrendered to police after the shooting, with at least one of them chanting “Jai Shri Ram” or “Heil Lord Ram,” a slogan that has become a rallying cry for Hindu nationalists in their campaign against Muslims.

The two victims were from the Indian Muslim minority. Police have not said whether they are investigating a possible sectarian motive for the killings.

Police officer Ramit Sharma told the Associated Press news agency that the three attackers arrived on motorcycles posing as journalists.

“They managed to get close to Atiq and his brother under the pretext of recording a byte and fired at them at close range,” he said. “Both suffered bullet wounds to the head.”

“It all happened in seconds,” Sharma said.

Another police official, Prashant Kumar, told the Agence France-Presse news agency that the attackers are being questioned.

‘Police failure’

Atiq Ahmed had said in a petition to India’s top court last month that his life was threatened by police in the state ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

His lawyer, Vijay Mishra, said the shooting was shocking because “it is a clear failure of the police to ensure the safety of its clients”.

The shooting took place days after Atiq’s 19-year-old son, Asad Ahmed, and an accomplice, both of whom had been charged with a recent murder, were killed by police in what was described as a shootout.

Atiq Ahmed, 60, was imprisoned in 2019 after being convicted of kidnapping. He served as a local legislator four times and was also elected to the Indian Parliament in 2004. He reportedly faced more than 100 lawsuits.

In Uttar Pradesh, more than 180 people have been killed in recent years in so-called “police encounters”, which human rights groups say are often extrajudicial killings.

In 2019, UN experts sounded the alarm about alleged police killings in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state and home to 200 million people.

Hundreds of politicians from all parties across India have criminal cases pending against them, and nearly half of ministers in Uttar Pradesh are criminal suspects, according to the independent monitoring group of the Association for Democratic Reforms.

Cases against the state’s chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, were dropped after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP came to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017.

Forensic officers are investigating the spot where Atiq Ahmed, accused in several criminal cases, and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were shot dead in Prayagraj on April 15, 2023. [Ritesh Shukla/Reuters]

‘Breach of the rule of law’

Gatherings of more than four people were banned in the crime-ridden northern state on Sunday after the shootings.

Adityanath ordered an investigation into the killings, which has sparked outrage among opposition leaders.

Samajwadi party leader Akhilesh Yadav said, “Crime has reached its peak in UP and the morale of the criminals is high.”

“If someone can be killed by open firing amidst the police security cordon, what about the safety of the general public?” he tweeted in Hindi.

Dalit leader and former chief minister of the state, Mayawati, expressed her concern over the killing and asked the Supreme Court to take note of this “extremely serious and concerning” incident.

“It raises serious questions about the law and order of the UP government and its mode of operation,” she said.

Indian National Congress party leader Priyanka Gandhi also stressed the rule of law.

“Criminals should receive the harshest punishments, but it should be according to the law of the land,” the secretary general of Congress said. “Playing with or violating the rule of law and the judicial process for any political purpose is not good for our democracy.”

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