Atiq Ahmed: Indian former MP shot dead on live TV while under police escort

Convicted criminal was being taken from prison to hospital in Uttar Pradesh for check-up

Indian police officers survey the scene where former MP Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were killed in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. EPA

A former member of India's Parliament has been shot dead on live TV along with his brother while police were escorting them for a hospital check-up.

Footage of the attacks on Saturday shows a gunman behind police pointing a pistol at the temple of former MP Atiq Ahmed, who had been convicted of kidnapping and also faced charges of murder and assault.

His brother Ashraf was shot moments later.

In other footage, filmed by Reuters partner ANI, one gunman can be seen firing repeatedly at the brothers' as they lay on the ground.

The pair died within minutes, while police detained three men suspected of carrying out the killings.

The suspects were among a crowd of journalists who had gathered as the two brothers, allegedly kingpins in a local criminal organisation, were being brought in handcuffs to a hospital in Prayagraj city in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday evening.

One surrendered immediately after the shooting, while officers subdued the other two.

One police officer was wounded in the attack.

The alleged attackers told police they wanted to kill the brothers "with the aim of completely wiping out the Atiq Ashraf gang and making a name for ourselves", The Times of India reported.

The suspected gunmen were said to have shouted Hindu religious chants after the shooting took place.

Atiq Ahmed, 60, was sentenced to jail in 2019 after being convicted of kidnapping a lawyer, Umesh Pal, who had testified against him as a witness in the killing of a state legislator in 2005. Mr Pal was killed in February.

On Thursday, Atiq Ahmed’s teenage son and another man, both of whom were blamed for Mr Pal’s death, were killed by police in what was described as a shoot-out.

Two weeks earlier, Atiq Ahmed had petitioned the Indian Supreme Court for protection, saying there was an “open, direct and immediate threat to his life” from state functionaries of Uttar Pradesh. But the court declined to intervene and instead asked his lawyer to approach the local state court.

Elected four times to the state legislature and once to Parliament, Atiq Ahmed faced more than 100 criminal cases and was among the first politicians from Uttar Pradesh to be prosecuted under the stringent Gangster Act in the late 1980s. He also cultivated a Robin Hood image among his mostly Muslim constituents and used to help many lower-income families financially.

But he was also criticised for using his political clout to develop a syndicate that was an active player in the real estate market amid allegations of forced capture of properties and other crimes.

The Uttar Pradesh government, controlled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ordered a judicial investigation into the killings on Saturday and banned gatherings of more than four people across the entire state to prevent the possibility of unrest.

The head of the opposition Samajwadi Party said the killing of Mr Ahmed, a former party member, while in police custody demonstrated the failure of the BJP to bring law and order to Uttar Pradesh.

"When someone can be killed in firing openly amidst the security cordon of the police, then what about the safety of the general public?" Akhilesh Yadav said in a tweet.