LUCKNOW : Former Samajwadi party member parliament Atiq Ahmad facing jail along with his brother Ashraf on Saturday night were shot dead in Prayagraj at point-blank range by two assailants while the deceased duo were taken to hospital for medical checkup under heavy police cover.
The shooters fired repeated shots at both handcuffed deceased outside a hospital where they were being escorted for a mandatory medical examination. The police taken into custody two shooters and an associate after the assailants executed the killings of jailed gangster turned politician and his brother. They have been identified as Luvlesh Tiwari, Sunny and Arun Maurya.
Citing eyewitnesses accounts, several national dailies reported that the shooting lasted for 22 seconds during which 14 rounds of bullets were fired by assailants on Atiq Ahmad and Ashraf. Later, the two of them were seen chanting “Jai shri Ram” slogans after being overpowered by the cops, reports one national daily.
While the UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, has ordered a high-level meeting after the sensational killings and setting up a three-member judicial commission to probe the incident, the opposition party leaders has termed the sensational killings of Atiq and brother by shooters in police cover as murder of democracy and demanded dismissal Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government in Uttar Pradesh for mounting anarchy .
In a tweet in hindi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said “Crime has reached its peak in UP and the morale of the criminals is high. When someone can be killed by firing openly amidst the security cordon of the police, then what about the safety of the general public. Due to this, an atmosphere of fear is being created among the public, it seems that some people are deliberately creating such an atmosphere”.
BSP MP from Amroha Danish Ali in a tweet said “Cold blooded murder of Ateeq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf is the height of anarchy in UP! This can’t happen without a go ahead from the top. In any other democracy the state Govt must have been dismissed for such a heinous crime against the rule of law”. In a tweet, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal said, “Two murders in UP: 1) Atiq Ahmed and brother Ashraf 2) Rule of law.