UP govt faces Oppn backlash over Atiq Ahmed killing: ‘Brazen anarchy’, ‘Adityanath should resign’

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she was shocked by the “brazen anarchy and total collapse of law and order in Uttar Pradesh”. She tweeted, “It is shameful that perpetrators are now taking the law into their own hands, unfazed by the police and media presence. Such unlawful acts have no place in our constitutional democracy.”

I am shocked by the brazen anarchy and total collapse of law & order in Uttar Pradesh.

It is shameful that perpetrators are now taking the law in their own hands, unfazed by the police and media presence.

Such unlawful acts have no place in our constitutional democracy.

— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) April 16, 2023

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi alleged that the Uttar Pradesh government had a role in the killings and demanded a Supreme Court-monitored investigation into the matter. “No officer from Uttar Pradesh should be included in the committee. This was a ‘cold-blooded’ murder,” he said, adding that people celebrating the killing were “vultures”.

Owaisi said the incident raises a big question about the law-and-order situation in the state and demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. “I have always been saying that the BJP in Uttar Pradesh is not running the government by the rule of law but by the rule of gun.”

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is the Congress’s UP in-charge, without taking any names, tweeted: “Criminals should be given the harshest punishment, but it should be according to the law of the land. Playing with or violating the rule of law and the judicial process for any political purpose is not right for our democracy.”

जो भी ऐसा करता है, या ऐसे करने वालों को सरंक्षण देता है, उसे भी ज़िम्मेदार ठहराया जाना चाहिए और उस पर भी सख्ती से क़ानून लागू होना चाहिए।

देश में न्याय व्यवस्था और कानून के राज का इकबाल बुलंद हो, यही हम सबकी कोशिश होनी चाहिए।

— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) April 16, 2023

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said courts were there to ensure criminals get the harshest punishment, adding that “playing with law and order only gives birth to anarchy”.

समाज में किसी को डराने व धमकाने के लिए जो भी हमारी न्याय प्रणाली में राजनैतिक उद्देश्य से दखलअंदाज़ी करता है,अपराधी के साथ वो भी दंड का भागीदार है।

किसी भी मुजरिम को सख़्त से सख़्त सजा मिले,इसके लिए अदालतें हैं।

क़ानून व्यवस्था से खिलवाड़ करना केवल अराजकता को जन्म देता है।

3/3

— Mallikarjun Kharge (@kharge) April 16, 2023

Raising questions about the law-and-order situation of Uttar Pradesh, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut said, “It is serious if a murder takes place in broad daylight under the supervision of the police.”

In a sharp attack on the BJP, TMC MP Mahua Moitra said “BJP has turned India into a mafia republic”. She tweeted, “Jungle Raj under BJP Yogi govt in UP. Its USP: Encounter killings, Bulldozer politics & patronising criminals. Enforce rule of law; apprehend perpetrators & punish them stringently.”

BJP has turned India into a mafia republic.
I will say it here, I will say it abroad, I will say it everywhere because it is the truth.

2 men in custody shot dead in front of a zillion policemen & cameras – this is the death of the rule of law.

— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) April 16, 2023

Moitra also said she could believe the BJP “got the shooting done” to “deflect attention” from repercussions of the Satyapal Malik interview in which he flagged lapses on part of the government in the lead-up to the Pulwama attack in 2019.

So basically Ajay Bisht & @Uppolice found 3 men who very conveniently have “no family connections” to kill Atiq & his brother.

That’s how all terrorist organisations recruit their hitmen btw. pic.twitter.com/lttK0V7lNn

— Mahua Moitra (@MahuaMoitra) April 16, 2023

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath demanded a Supreme Court-monitored probe into the gunning down of Ahmed and his brother. “What kind of politics is taking place in Uttar Pradesh and in the country? One day someone is killed and the next day someone else. It is for society to think where UP and the country are headed. The Supreme Court should take notice of it and order an inquiry,” Nath said.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Supriya Sule called Ahmed’s killing a “horrifying” incident for children and women. “We ask children to watch tv and news channels to increase their general knowledge, but the way crime was shown live on national television was ‘horrifying’ for children and women,” she said.

Forensic officials examine the spot where Atiq Ahmed, a former lawmaker in India’s parliament, accused in several criminal cases, and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were shot dead in Prayagraj, India, April 15, 2023. REUTERS/Ritesh Shukla

Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot said “such incidents can happen with anyone if there is no rule of law”. He added, “The country is watching what is happening in Uttar Pradesh.” Gehlot, however, warned mafia and gangsters active in his state that their fate could also be the same as Atiq’s.

Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal said the state administration must be taken to task if they don’t follow the law. He also invoked the killing of Atiq’s son Asad — an accused in the killing of Umesh Pal who was a key witness in the murder of BSP leader Raju Pal — in an exchange of fire with a UP STF team earlier. Sibal said, “He was a young boy (Asad), aged 19. How could it be a threat to national security? If you want to catch him, hit him on his leg, prosecute him. Why do you want to kill him?” The Umesh Pal murder was the police case against the son of the gangster-turned-politician.

Commenting on the killing, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha called the head of UP administration “incompetent” and said that “it is not a murder of a person but of the process of law.”

“Bapu was killed, there was a trial, Indira Gandhi was killed there was a trial, Rajiv Gandhi was killed there was a trial, what kind of process is this… to kill an alleged goonda, goondaism is being resorted to. We are not living in the medieval ages,” Jha said.

The person who is the head of the Uttar Pradesh administration is incompetent, he said slamming Adityanath.

Alleging that Uttar Pradesh has “slipped into anarchy and jungle raj,” PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said, “Cold blooded murders and lawlessness is being celebrated by rabid right wingers amidst slogans of Jai Shri Ram.”

UP has slipped into anarchy & jungle raj. Cold blooded murders & lawlessness is being celebrated by rabid right wingers amidst slogans of Jai Shri Ram. A clever diversionary tactic to shift attention from Satyapal Malik’s damning revelations about Pulwama attack & corruption. https://t.co/Ovrjl9JdQB

— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) April 16, 2023

She also alleged that Atiq Ahmed’s murder was a “clever diversionary tactic” to shift attention from the “revelations” made by former Jammu and Kashmir governor Satyapal Malik about the Pulwama attack.

In an interview with a news portal, Satya Pal Malik had claimed that after the Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked him to stay silent over some alleged lapses he flagged.