How fair is it to portray Atiq merely as a ‘former MP’?

They are consciously attempting to erase his existence as the dreaded mafia, and portray him as a ‘former Indian politician’ instead of a ‘Mafia don turned politician’.

By Ramneek Manhas

Days after the murder of gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf, strong and biased reactions are being seen not only from the ‘secular’ journalists and Leftists but also from foreign media houses. They got a stick to beat the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his government and started blaming them for conspiring the murder of the duo and for promoting communal and anti-Muslim attitude.

Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were shot dead on April 15 in Prayagraj Uttar Pradesh. The incident took place when both brothers were being taken for medical examination under police escort. Both the brothers were killed after three men, pretending to be journalists, opened fire on them at a medical college in Prayagraj of Uttar Pradesh in front of the TV cameras. A policeman and a journalist were also injured at the scene. The three assailants were immediately overpowered by the police and taken into custody. They have been identified as Sunny Singh, Lavlesh Tiwari and Arun Maurya, all of whom are history sheeters. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath took no time to constitute a three-member judicial commission to investigate the murders. Five cops have been suspended for their inability to protect the victims who were under judicial custody.

Atiq Ahmed was a convicted criminal. A local court sentenced him to life in jail in March this year in a kidnapping case. More than 100 cases were registered against him and he was said to be involved in as many more but the victims were too afraid to lodge complaints. The cases include heinous crimes like kidnappings, murders, threats, murder attempts and extortions. He was the first person who was booked under the ‘Gangster Act’ in Uttar Pradesh. Atiq’s criminal history ran very deep. According to police records, the first murder case against him was filed in 1979 at the young age of 17. After that, he became so well-known in the underworld that his popularity even overshadowed that of the dons of Mumbai. The gangster act was also invoked against him three times. In addition to several cases against him, he also had ties with Pakistani terrorist organisations, according to the Uttar Pradesh Police’s charge sheet against him. He reportedly admitted to having regular contact with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Dawood Ibrahim’s Gang. He posed himself as the leader of the Muslim community in Uttar Pradesh. He took pride in the charges against him and boasted that he has 188 cases pending against him, has spent half his life behind the bars and compared himself to Nelson Mandela!

Several notorious gangsters including Atiq Ahmed, Mukhtar Ansari, Raja Bhaiya, and Amarmani Tripathi were given political shelter in Uttar Pradesh and were referred to as ‘Bahubali’ leaders by the media and some politicians. These leaders with criminal backgrounds had a very pivotal role in bringing Mulayam Singh and Mayawati to the chief ministerial positions in the state. As quid pro quo, these criminals were not only inducted into their respective political parties, and offered election tickets and important positions but all efforts were made to thwart any measure which was undertaken to bring them to justice. Significantly, Gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed remained a Samajwadi Party MP and had close ties to Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.  Prior to 2017, it was common for criminals to turn to politics, hold leadership positions, and eventually join the government to carry out their plans by staying in power. This cycle was broken for the first time in 2017 after Yogi Adityanath take over as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. Mafia elements had stopped getting protection from the government.

A narrative is being created by the anti-Indian eco-system to portray Atiq Ahmed merely as a ‘Former Member of Parliament’ and a ‘Muslim leader’ in order to defame India internationally as well as to create panic, anxiety and resentment among the Muslim community. Many so-called ‘secular’ journalists and Leftists are only highlighting the political career of the gangster by referring to him as a ‘former MP’ and projecting him as a regular politician, while conveniently ignoring the criminal part which dominated most of his life. They are consciously attempting to erase his existence as the dreaded mafia, and portray him as a ‘former Indian politician’ instead of a ‘Mafia don turned politician’. He has been called a ‘Robin Hood’, who spent lavishly helping poor people. Recently one congress leader has demanded Bharat Ratna for ‘Martyr’ Atiq Ahmed.

The anti-Indian lobby is trying to divert the blame of his death on the alleged ‘Sanatan Dharma’ and Hindu society as the three shooters allegedly chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’ while shooting the duo down, ignoring the fact that investigations have yet to be completed. Significantly, even before this, Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab wore Kalava on his wrist to implicate Hindus in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Merely shouting the slogan doesn’t amount to any proof. The possibility that Atiq Ahmed and his brother were killed as a result of a gang war and upheaval within regional political parties in Uttar Pradesh is not ruled out yet. The pistols which were used in the act are sophisticated ones. They are made in Turkey, costs more than Rs 6 lakh, and are banned in India. Given the background of the killers, it is very difficult for these three to have easy excess to such a gun.

The lobby is also giving a communal twist to the killing by calling Atiq a ‘Muslim leader’ killed by Yogi Government forgetting the fact that Vikas Dubey commonly known as Vikas Pandit, the gangster-turned-politician was killed in an encounter with the UP Police in Yogi Government in 2020.

In our opinion, we must wait for the investigations to complete before jumping to conclusions.