Assailants posing as journalists killed at close range, on live camera, a former Indian deputy and his brother who was accompanied by police in handcuffs to a hospital in India.
Former Indian lawmaker Atiq Ahmed, 61, jailed since 2019 and convicted of kidnapping, was answering questions from journalists on Saturday night when he was shot dead in Prayagraj, in the state of Uttar Pradesh (north I’India). His brother was also killed, footage from an Indian TV show Aaj Takand. The assailants have been arrested and their interrogation is ongoing, according to police.
fake reporter
“Initial information is that three men disguised as journalists approached them and opened fire,” said a police officer, Prashant Kumar.
Television footage showed the attackers chanting Hindu slogans after the attack. Both victims are members of India’s Muslim minority, but police did not say whether they were investigating a possible religious motive for their killings. According to press reports, the attackers were petty criminals.
The two brothers are linked to criminal rings in India and the former MP faces over a hundred charges, including murder and assault. One of the attackers was carrying a camera and the other a microphone bearing the chain’s logo, according to local media.
The son of a former member of parliament was killed a few days ago
Uttar Pradesh state police had announced days earlier that they had killed in a shootout the former lawmaker’s 19-year-old son and an accomplice, both wanted in a murder case.
In this state, the organization of defense of human rights regularly denounced extrajudicial executions. Atiq Ahmed last month claimed in a petition to India’s Supreme Court that his life was threatened by police.
On Sunday, following 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 accuse the BJP of imposing terror. Hundreds of politicians from all parties in India were indicted by the courts, particularly in Uttar Pradesh, where it affected nearly half of the state ministers, including the chief minister, according to the Association for Democratic Reform (ADR).
Original article published on BFMTV.com
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