Former MP and his brother shot dead on live TV in India

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A former Indian MP convicted of kidnapping and facing murder and assault charges has been murdered along with his brother in a dramatic shooting broadcast live on TV.

Atiq Ahmed, a former MP who was serving a life sentence in jail, and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were in police custody outside a hospital in Prayagraj, in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, when three men fired more than 20 round of bullets at them from close range as they took questions from reporters. The two brothers died on the spot.

Police officer Ramit Sharma said the three assailants came on motorcycles posing as journalists, and were carrying camera equipment, a microphone bearing the logo of a television network and fake journalist IDs.

“They managed to reach close to Atiq and his brother on the pretext of recording a byte and fired at them from close range. Both sustained bullet injuries on the head … It all happened in seconds,” said Sharma. The attack, which took place late on Saturday night, was captured live on television by several broadcasters present at the scene.

The men responsible quickly surrendered to the police after the shooting and handed over their pistols, with at least one of them chanting “Jai Shri Ram” or “Hail Lord Ram”, a slogan that has become a battle cry for Hindu nationalists in their campaign against Muslims.

The assailants were named as Lavlesh Tiwari, 22, Mohit Puraney, 23, and Arun Kumar Maurya, 18. The men reportedly told police they had been following the Ahmed brothers for two days, since they came into custody, and wanted to carry out the killings to gain notoriety.

“We wanted to kill Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf with the aim of completely wiping off the Atiq-Ashraf gang and making a name for ourselves,” the men are quoted as telling police in the report filed in the case. Police said they were investigating further but did not clarify if they were looking into a sectarian motive for the killing.

One of the assailants was shot in the hand during the retaliatory police firing and a police constable also suffered a bullet injury in the attack. No action has been taken so far against the team of 20 police officers who were in charge of the Ahmed brothers.

Atiq Ahmed, his brother and their wider family were notorious figures in the Uttar Pradesh criminal underworld, accused of running a crime syndicate embroiled in murder and extortion, and the former politician had more than 100 different cases filed against him, including assault and murder. He was jailed for life in 2019 after being convicted of orchestrating a kidnapping while he was in prison.

The Ahmed brothers had been in police custody relating to the murder of lawyer Umesh Pal, who had been a key witness in the case of another killing they were implicated in.

Last month, Ahmed had filed a petition to the Supreme Court alleging that his life was under threat from police. His lawyer, Vijay Mishra, said the incident was shocking as “it is a clear failure of the police in ensuring the safety” of his clients.

Uttar Pradesh, which is India’s most populous state of more than 200 million people, has a reputation for criminality and nearly half the ministers, the chief minister included, have pending criminal cases against them.

It was just earlier this week that Atiq Ahmed’s 19-year-old son, who was also accused in the murder of lawyer Umesh Pal, was shot dead by police in what many suspect was an encounter killing.

The police in Uttar Pradesh have a notorious record of carrying out extra-judicial “encounter” shootings of criminals who they claim attempted to make an escape from custody or who fired on officers first. In the past five years, there have been almost 9,000 police shootings in Uttar Pradesh, with over 150 fatalities.

Opposition parties criticised the killings as a major security lapse. Uttar Pradesh is ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who also rule the central government, and the state’s chief minister Yogi Adiyanath is one of the most hardline Hindu nationalist figures in the party.

Adityanath has repeatedly put security and a crackdown on crime in the state at the forefront of his political agenda, often through controversial means. In a speech in 2017, Adityanath said “if anyone commits a crime, he will be shot down”. Activists and former police officers have alleged extrajudicial killings since became unofficial policy in the state, carried out with impunity by police.

Adityanath said a judicial probe had been ordered into the killings of the brothers and a report had been submitted to the home ministry. The internet was cut in certain areas, with large groups banned from gathering over fears the issue could escalate into protest or violence.