Atiq and Ashraf Ahmed, detained since 2019 and targets of multiple criminal charges, were being escorted by police for a medical examination when they were killed by assailants disguised as journalists.
Attackers posing as journalists killed at close range, in front of live cameras, a former Indian MP and his brother whom the police accompanied handcuffed to hospital in Prayagraj, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Saturday April 15.
Atiq Ahmed, 61, who has been jailed since 2019 and convicted of kidnapping, was fielding questions from reporters when he and his brother Ashraf were shot dead, footage from Indian broadcaster Aaj Takand showed.
“According to initial information, three people posing as journalists approached them and opened fire”said a police official. “The attackers have been arrested and their questioning is ongoing.”
Hindu slogans and Muslim victims
Television footage shows the attackers shouting Hindu slogans after the attack. Both victims are members of India’s Muslim minority, but police did not say whether they were investigating a possible religious motive. According to press reports, the attackers were petty criminals.
The two brothers were linked to criminal circles in India and the former MP faced more than a hundred charges, including for murder and assault. He had sat in Parliament from 2004 to 2009 for a regional party, the Samajwadi Party, reports the BBC.
Gatherings banned in the state
The Uttar Pradesh police had announced several days earlier that they killed in a shootout the 19-year-old son of the former MP and an accomplice, both wanted in a murder case.
In this state, human rights organizations regularly denounce extrajudicial executions. Atiq Ahmed claimed in a petition to India’s Supreme Court last month that his life was being threatened by the police.
On Sunday, authorities in Uttar Pradesh banned gatherings of more than four people. This state of 200 million inhabitants is led by India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).