Editorial: Chronicle of deaths foretold

The killing of Atiq brothers marks a new low in the law-and-order situation in Uttar Pradesh

The brazen killing of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf Ahmad right under the nose of the police and in full public view marks a new low in the law-and-order situation in Uttar Pradesh. It is bizarre that such an attack can happen when the victims are in police custody. The fact that the duo was shot dead at point-blank range while being taken to hospital for a routine medical examination raises several questions about the complicity of the police who are supposed to ensure their safety. The murders were captured on live television. This was a chronicle of deaths foretold. Both had earlier petitioned court after court for their security even as there were calls, from the highest quarters, for eliminating them to send a strong message to the mafia world. The shameful incident speaks poorly of the quality of state policing. Those responsible for laxity and complicity must be made accountable. The assailants — three young men with a criminal record— surrendered promptly and are in police custody. The government has set up a judicial commission and promised that due process will be followed. However, given its track record, not many are hopeful of any justice. While Atiq may be a hardcore criminal with over 100 cases registered against him including murders and kidnaps, there is no justification for the calls for extra-judicial killing. Such heinous crimes are a blot on the police and erode public faith in the criminal justice system.

The daylight murders came two days after an alleged encounter in which the police killed Atiq’s 19-year-old son Asad and an aide Ghulam Hussain, both accused in the killing of Umesh Pal, a key witness in the 2005 Raju Pal murder case. The right to seek retribution and redressal for wrongs committed does not lie with vigilantes. The three men who surrendered before the police after the murders must be probed and tried to the fullest extent of the law. Politicians should refrain from resorting to triumphalism because it imbues the crime with the whiff of politics. Ever since Yogi Adityanath became Chief Minister of UP in 2017, encounter killings have become the order of the day — touching 183 so far — and what is more disturbing is that they are celebrated in the name of punishing the criminals. The rise of Atiq, who had an unchallenged run straddling the world of crime and politics through regime changes, is symptomatic of the malaise that has come to be identified with the State. The latest spree of killings brought back memories of the turbulent 1980s and 1990s in the State, when police struggled to impose law and order, and reckless criminals had a free run in the badlands. It only proves that for India’s most-populous State, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

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