Atiq Ahmed ambushed; mafia don meets violent death
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, April 15: Mafia don turned politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were killed by unidentified assailants on Saturday while they were being taken to Prayagraj medical college for regular checkups. Viral video showed that Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf Ahmed were walking leisurely as they were speaking to television reporters when the assailants shot the two dead from behind.
It was seen in the video that the two convicts in the Raju Pal murder case were walking in the company of the police personnel when they were ambushed by the assailants. The two were walking in the darkness when assailants easily fired shorts, first at the head of Ashraf Ahmed and then Atiq Ahmed, as the other companions safely ran for safety. Both collapsed instantly on the spot. They were declared brought dead at the Prayagraj Medical College.
The killings of Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf Ahmed came close on the heels of the encounter of Asad Ahmed and his aide Ghulam in Jhansi in which they were also shot dead after they opened fire on the police personnel. Asad Ahmed, youngest son of Atiq Ahmed, was an accused in the Umesh Pal murder case. Pal was a key witness in the Raju Pal murder case.
Incidentally, Raju Pal, who had defeated Ahmed in an Assembly byelection, was shot dead. Atiq Ahmed was recently given life term in the Raju Pal murder case.
With the killings of Atiq Ahmed and his brother, the dark era of the mafia don running his empire in Prayagraj has come to an end. After the killing of Umesh Pal in the broad daylight, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during a spat with his predecessor Akhilesh Yadav in the state Assembly had vowed “mafia ko mitti mein mila denge (will reduce the mafia to ashes)”.
With Adityanath at the helm of affairs in UP, there has been over 10,000 encounters in the state in the last seven years in which 178 criminals have been eliminated. While the Opposition has accused the state government of disregarding rule of law, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders have been assertive of the iron-fisted approach of the chief ministers against criminals.
Atiq Ahmed had risen from being a street urchin to a don in Prayagraj and he was even elected to the Lok Sabha. His reign is said to have started in early 1990s in Prayagraj. Two other sons of Atiq Ahmed are also in jails as they are accused in several murder cases.
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