Former MP Atik Ahmed, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in India for a number of crimes, including kidnapping, was killed. In this respect informs Al Jazeera channel.
Ahmed and his brother, Ashraf, were shot and killed on-air while commenting to reporters while being taken to the hospital for a checkup.
In the footage, it is seen that Atik and Eşref, who are in handcuffs, are accompanied by the police, surrounded by journalists and talking. Meanwhile, a person approaching Atik from the left took out his gun and shot him in the head. The former deputy fell, several more shots were fired, and then his brother fell to the ground.
The incident occurred in the city of Prayagraj in the state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India. According to authorities, the three militants posed as journalists to get close to the Ahmed brothers. All the attackers surrendered to law enforcement immediately after the attack. At least one of them chanted the slogan Jai Shri Ram, which became the battle cry of Hindu nationalists in their campaign against Muslims.
Both of the dead politicians belonged to the Muslim minority. Police have not yet reported whether the crime was committed on religious grounds. Al Jazeera states that the perpetrators lived in the same state.
Police officer Ramit Sharma, who accompanied the brothers to the hospital, said the attackers came on motorcycles.
“Under the pretext of recording comments, they managed to approach Atik and his brother and open fire at close range. Both received bullet wounds to their heads. It was in seconds,” said the policeman.
After the murder of the former MP and his brother, Prayagraj authorities imposed a temporary ban on gatherings of groups of more than four people on the streets.
West Bengal Prime Minister and prominent Indian politician Mamata Banerjee said that Ahmed’s killing showed the anarchy and the rule of law in the state of Uttar Pradesh had completely collapsed.
“It is shameful that lawbreakers are now taking the law into their own hands, ignoring the presence of the police and media. Such illegal acts have no place in our constitutional democracy,” he wrote on Twitter.
Atik Ahmed, 60, was elected four times to the legislature of Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, and became a member of the Indian Parliament in 2004. He was repeatedly sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping in 2019. In total, more than 100 criminal cases were brought against Ahmed.
A few days ago, the deceased’s 19-year-old son, Asad Ahmed, was killed in a shootout with the police. Ahmed Jr. was charged with murder.
In March, Ahmed filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of India that his life had been threatened by state police, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of which Prime Minister Narendra Modi was one of the leaders.
According to the UN, at least 180 people accused of various crimes have been killed in Uttar Pradesh over the past few years. Often the deaths of suspects or prisoners occurred during the so-called “conflicts with the police.” However, Western human rights activists think that they are hiding the practice of extrajudicial executions behind this rhetoric.
In 2019, the UN Human Rights Commission published an extensive report on extrajudicial killings and kidnappings in Uttar Pradesh. Hundreds of Indian politicians from various parties have been prosecuted, according to an independent monitoring group. About half of Uttar Pradesh’s ministers are criminal suspects.
Human rights activists noted that there was confirmed information on 59 extrajudicial killings in the state, and Muslims were killed in 15 cases. Each time the murders took place while the victims were in custody. Uttar Pradesh police stated that after all these events, the dead were removed as part of self-defense.