Attackers posing as journalists killed at close range, in front of live cameras, a former Indian deputy and his brother whom the police accompanied handcuffed to hospital in India.
Former Indian MP Atiq Ahmed, 61, imprisoned since 2019 and convicted of kidnapping, was answering questions from journalists on Saturday evening when he was shot dead in Prayagraj, in the state of Uttar Pradesh (north of India). His brother was also killed, footage from Indian TV showed Aaj Takand. The attackers have been arrested and their questioning is ongoing, according to the police.
fake journalists
“According to initial information, three people posing as journalists approached them and opened fire,” said a police official, Prashant Kumar.
Television footage shows the attackers shouting Hindu slogans after the attack. The two victims are members of India’s Muslim minority, but the police did not say whether they were investigating a possible religious motive for their murder. 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. One of the assailants carried a camera and the other a microphone bearing the chain’s logo, according to local media.
The son of the ex-MP killed a few days ago
Uttar Pradesh state police had announced several days earlier that they killed in a shootout the 19-year-old son of the ex-MP and an accomplice, both wanted in a murder case.
In this state, human rights organizations regularly denounce extrajudicial executions. Atiq Ahmed claimed last month in a petition to India’s Supreme Court that his life was threatened by the police.
On Sunday, after the incident, gatherings of more than four people were banned in Uttar Pradesh, a state of 200 million people ruled by India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Opposition parties have accused the BJP of imposing a reign of terror. Hundreds of politicians from all parties in India are incriminated by the courts, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, where it affects almost half of the state’s ministers, including the chief minister, according to the Association for Democratic Reforms ( ADR).
