Global Courant 2023-04-16 12:47:53
PRAYAGRAJ, India – Gunmen posing as journalists shot and killed a former Indian politician and his brother on live TV as they were handcuffed and taken to hospital by police.
Atiq Ahmed, 61, who had been in prison since 2019 and was convicted of kidnapping, was answering reporters’ questions late Saturday as he and his brother Ashraf were shot at close range, television footage showed.
“According to preliminary information, three persons posing as journalists approached them and opened fire… The attackers have been detained and are being questioned,” said police official Prashant Kumar.
The TV clip in the northern city of Prayagraj shows the attackers shouting Hindu slogans after the brutal attack.
The two victims belonged to India’s Muslim minority, but police did not say whether they were investigating a possible sectarian motive for the killings.
The brothers were heavily involved in India’s criminal underworld. Ahmed, a former MP, faced more than 100 different cases.
According to press reports, the attackers were petty criminals.
The brothers were taken to the hospital for a medical examination and at that time were surrounded by police officers.
Local media reports that one of the gunmen even had a television camera with him and another a microphone with the logo of a television channel.
A few days earlier, police in the same state of Uttar Pradesh said they had shot dead Ahmed’s 19-year-old son and his accomplice in a shootout. Both were wanted in a murder case.
Dozens of indicted people have been killed in the state in recent years in similar so-called police encounters, which human rights groups say are often extrajudicial killings.
Ahmed, who was charged with murder and assault, claimed in a petition to India’s highest court in March that his life was threatened by the police.
Following his shooting, gatherings of more than four people were banned in the northern state of 200 million people ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday.
