Atiq Ahmad, a gangster-turned-politician, and his brother Ashraf Ahmad were shot and killed late on Saturday in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh by three people belonging to different cities, Banda, Hamirpur, Kasganj. They have a criminal background and also are drug addicts. Twitter friends of Atiq are grieving for him. Some without knowing who he was. Some just because he was a Muslim. And some because they have to rule the land of Twitter. All those great people on twitter giving political sermons on social media should evaluate how much they really know and understand. You can’t change the world by just commenting.
Asaduddin Owaisi, the leader of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), as always, pointed firearms at the Yogi Adityanath administration, stating that the BJP is utilising the “rule of the gun” to administer the state. Speaking to the media on Sunday morning, the head of AIMIM called for an end to radicalization and denounced those who were celebrating the murders. “I’m ready to pass away… Stopping radicalization is necessary. I’ll go to Uttar Pradesh; I have no fear. Owaisi referred to the killings as “cold-blooded” and reaffirmed his position that the tragedy raises important concerns about the status of law and order in UP. “I’ve long maintained that the BJP in Uttar Pradesh is governing by the rule of the gun rather than the rule of law.” Can Mr Owaisi explain what the police and the Government should have done and what they have not done in the particular incident?
The AIMIM had questioned whether the public would still have faith in the country’s laws and constitution following this tragedy. “Where did the murderers acquire those weapons from? Why, after killing them, did they raise religious cries? What other name would you give them but terrorists? Are they referred to as Patriots? People who are rejoicing over this incident are vultures, he continued. Owaisi also urged a Supreme Court-monitored investigation into the tragedy, alleging that the UP government played a role in it. He demanded the resignation of CM Yogi Adityanath, saying, “No officer from Uttar Pradesh should be included in the committee. Three men posing as journalists shot Atiq and his brother Ashraf dead at close range. They were being brought to a medical college in Prayagraj for a checkup on Saturday night when the event took place; they had been remanded in police custody in connection with the murder of Umesh Pal. For all the questions posed by him, there could be logical answers. All the questions raised by Mr Owaisi apply to all gangsters and terrorists across the world. And unfortunately, these answers can be obtained only after an investigation which probably he does not want to support.
Over the course of four decades, Atiq Ahmed was the target of more than 100 cases, including ones involving extortion, raping, kidnapping, and murder. Atiq Ahmed gained notoriety after Umesh Pal, a witness in Raju Pal’s murder in 2005, was assassinated on February 24, 2022, but his criminal legacy in Uttar Pradesh was considerably more extensive. Atiq combined his involvement in politics and organised crime and enjoyed an unopposed reign for nearly four decades. He was raised in a low-income home and entered the criminal justice system as a very young child. His ancestral village remembers him as a vicious man who paid witnesses threatened them, always eluded the law and was known for framing his opponents in bogus cases. Atiq Ahmed was born in 1962 in Allahabad, which is now known as Prayagraj, and grew up in abject poverty. His father worked as a horse-cart driver in the community. After failing his high school exam, Atiq left the programme. He made very few efforts in attempting to escape poverty before deciding to turn to crime. Atiq began stealing coal from trains and selling it to earn money to make ends meet. He quickly began to threaten contractors to win government scrap metal tenders. We need to make a note that Owaisi is mourning for this same man who is a professional criminal and someone who did not fear or respect the law ever in his life.
It would have been very easy for the police to retaliate but they do not afford to stay away from their duty of saving innocent lives. Atiq was shot dead before anyone could realise. The priority of the Police post that ideally was to save innocent lives around and the media people who were scattered in the area. And that is what they did. They did not fire on the killers but arrested them alive and saved all the lives present there at that time. We can call it a presence of mind and an achievement of UP police. If the police had killed them, the same sympathizers of Atiq would have said that they have destroyed the evidence. The police are blamed that they did not protect Atiq but no one motivated them or congratulated them for not letting the scene go out of hand. Atiq Ahmed was not a saint or a nation-builder. He was a hardcore criminal who has killed and raped many. Gangsters have a fate which no police or social media political analyst can change. Justice should be done in courts only, not on the streets. But who will teach this to the gangster community? They don’t care what their opinion is on Twitter before killing innocent people and sometimes their kin. People like Swara Bhasker and Arfa Khanun Sherwani should know what they are doing before they promote empathy for gangsters on social forums.
Some great minds, low in intelligence and high in stupidity even claimed that BJP organized this whole event to divert attention from the Satypal Malik issue. If we closely observe this incident, we can conclude that it must have given shivers to all Mafias around the country and might lead to a safer society if all the criminals took a lesson from this. Law prevails, but so does the rowdiness of these uneducated horrible cannibals who are destroying the fabric of our peaceful society. Gangsters create lifelong enemies and this is a general fate of all those who invest more in creating enemies than legacy. The three major questions that we all need to ask ourselves are:
- How did a gangster become a politician in our country and how did we allow it to happen?
- Would you empathize or grieve the death of a man who has killed, kidnapped and raped many?
- What is your opinion about the people who are empathizing with Atiq the gangster and blaming the police?
Your answers are your stand about your country. Jai Hind.