New Delhi, India – On April 15, former Indian parliamentarian Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed have been shot useless by three assailants – a brazen assault caught on live television.

The two have been being escorted by the police within the northern metropolis of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh state for a “routine medical checkup” late on Saturday night time when a gaggle of journalists stopped them.

As quickly because the brothers began speaking to the reporters, the three suspected attackers, allegedly posing as journalists, fired a number of photographs, killing the gangster-politician and his brother on the spot.

The attackers surrendered to the police, chanting “Jai Shri Ram” (Hail Lord Ram), a spiritual slogan that has now turn into a warfare cry for Hindu teams of their marketing campaign in opposition to India’s Muslim minority.

Police claim the three attackers – recognized as Mohit alias Sunny Puraney, 23; Lavlesh Tiwari, 22; and Arun Kumar Maurya, 18 – “wanted to finish the gang of Atiq and Ashraf and become famous”.

Mohit, a university dropout from Hamirpur, reportedly has a dozen legal circumstances in opposition to him and is a declared “habitual offender”. The police declare that he was the central determine who deliberate the operation and was earlier jailed in a number of circumstances, together with tried homicide and theft.

The Facebook web page of the second attacker, Tiwari, suggests he’s a member of the far-right Hindu organisation Bajrang Dal. Residents of his village stated “he had big ambitions in the world of crime”. He too faces 4 circumstances with expenses of assault, harassment of girls and smuggling of illicit liquor.

Maurya, the youngest of the three, was reportedly launched to the world of crime by Mohit once they met in Panipat, a city in Haryana state. An orphan youngster, little is understood or reported about him.

Who was Atiq Ahmed?

Atiq, 60, was a six-term legislator, together with one time period within the nationwide parliament. He efficiently contested 5 state meeting elections from Allahabad (now referred to as Prayagraj) West constituency – thrice as an impartial candidate, as soon as as a Samajwadi Party chief, and as soon as as a candidate of his personal Apna Dal social gathering. The sixth time, Atiq contested the 2004 basic elections on a Samajwadi Party ticket and have become a member of parliament.

He was additionally a gangster with greater than 100 authorized circumstances in opposition to him, together with murders, kidnapping and extortion. He was convicted and jailed in 2019 for kidnapping a lawyer, Umesh Pal, who had testified in opposition to him in a 2005 homicide case of an area legislator named Raju Pal.

Umesh Pal was murdered in February this 12 months. Police suspected Atiq’s 19-year-old son Asad Ahmed’s function within the homicide. Incidentally, Asad, alongside together with his aide Ghulam Hussain, was shot useless by the Uttar Pradesh police in one other encounter solely two days earlier than Atiq’s homicide.

That, together with Atiq’s killing – which opposition events allege was “scripted” – has reignited human rights issues over a rising pattern of extrajudicial killings as a technique of governance in Uttar Pradesh.

Since 2017, when hardline Hindu monk Yogi Adityanath of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) grew to become the chief minister, the state has witnessed 10,900 police encounters, through which a minimum of 183 individuals died and shut to five,000 others have been injured, in accordance with police knowledge.

Political events against the BJP have accused Adityanath of subverting the rule of regulation and focusing on minority communities by utilizing the police.

The Uttar Pradesh police’s knowledge reveals such “encounters” disproportionately have an effect on Muslims and different marginalised communities. Between 2017 to 2020, 37 % of these killed in such incidents have been Muslims, practically twice the proportion of their inhabitants within the state.

India’s Supreme Court on Monday rescheduled to April 28 the listening to of a plea in search of an impartial investigation by a physique headed by a retired prime court docket decide into the killings of Atiq and his brother in full view of TV cameras.

He had not complained of any medical points. There was no function for the late-night hospital go to. Doctors can be found inside prisons.

by Vijay Mishra, Atiq Ahmed’s lawyer

Chief minister Adityanath has additionally introduced the formation of a three-member judicial fee to inquire into the killings.

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), an impartial physique to guard human rights in India, additionally took cognisance of the incident and demanded a report from the state authorities inside 4 weeks.

‘State machinery will take care of you’

Atiq’s dying, like many different extrajudicial killings, shouldn’t be freed from suspicion of foul play by the state.

His homicide got here solely two weeks after the Supreme Court rejected his plea through which he had expressed apprehensions about his security.

Atiq was lodged in a jail in Uttar Pradesh till 2019 when the highest court docket ordered his switch to the western state of Gujarat over allegations that he was orchestrating crimes from contained in the jail.

Since he was to face a verdict in a kidnapping case in a Prayagraj court docket on March 28, a staff of Uttar Pradesh police took his custody in Gujarat and drove him to Prayagraj.

Fearing for his security, Atiq submitted a petition earlier than the Supreme Court saying he “genuinely apprehends and believes” he “may be killed in a fake encounter on one pretext or the other” by the police.

“The state machinery will take care of you,” the highest court docket judges stated and dismissed his plea.

The identical day, Atiq’s brother Ashraf informed reporters a senior police officer in Uttar Pradesh had threatened to have him killed inside two weeks. And finally, he was killed inside days.

Al Jazeera spoke to one in all Atiq’s attorneys, Vijay Mishra, who referred to as his dying a “political murder”.

“He had not complained of any medical issues. There was no purpose for the late-night hospital visit. Doctors are available inside prisons,” Mishra stated.

When requested about native witnesses reportedly claiming the assailants have been seen getting out of a police van moments earlier than the brothers arrived on the website of their homicide, Mishra “agreed” with the claims.

“There were some people who were brought to the site of the murder in a police van before Atiq and his brother. But I can’t say who they were,” he informed Al Jazeera.

The lawyer additionally raised questions over the safety supplied to Atiq and his brother through the purported hospital go to.

“Only five to six security men were guarding him. This is unusual. Whenever he was taken out of jail, be it to the court or otherwise, a large contingent of state police officers and federal security officers guarded him,” he stated.

Mishra is mulling authorized motion in opposition to the Uttar Pradesh police over the killings.

The human rights fee in Uttar Pradesh is virtually non-existent.

by  Mohammed Shoib, rights activist

‘Encounter’ tips flouted

The Indian Penal Code – the official legal code within the nation – offers for the appropriate of the residents, together with regulation enforcement officers, to non-public defence, extending it to inflicting the dying of an individual supplied sure necessities are fulfilled.

But police have typically used this proper as an excuse to stage an encounter, which, in accordance with regulation, could be of two varieties: to injure and safe the arrest of an accused, or shoot to kill in non-public defence.

If an accused shouldn’t be efficiently arrested throughout an encounter and dies, critics level out that the police’s story following the incident is often the identical: whereas chasing or transporting the accused, they tried to or are capable of snatch the police’s weapons, shoot and attempt to run. Or they have already got weapons and open fireplace on the police with an “intent to kill”, leading to a crossfire that kills the accused.

These, critics say, are often “staged encounters” or extrajudicial killings.

Guidelines and procedures issued by the Supreme Court and the NHRC require that law enforcement officials use pressure solely when completely vital and that such pressure be proportional to the menace posed by a suspect.

They additionally lay out particular procedural and substantive safeguards that should be adopted by law enforcement officials throughout such “encounters”, together with that an impartial investigation be carried out into the circumstances surrounding the incident.

However, specialists say the rules have finished little to verify police violations and supply for an efficient redressal system for justice.

“The human rights commission in Uttar Pradesh is practically non-existent,” Mohammed Shoib, a rights defender and legal lawyer in Uttar Pradesh, informed Al Jazeera.

“The commission is in favour of Adityanath’s government. The guidelines are not implemented as most institutions are fearful of this government. As a result, extrajudicial killings have increased manifold. Heinous crimes, however, have not decreased in the state,” he stated.

Magistrates have fully surrendered, and that is throughout the nation, to the deeds or misdeeds of the police, which clearly emanate from political instructions.

by Mehmood Pracha, Lawyer

A 2021 report by the federal authorities on crimes in India famous a rise in circumstances of rape, kidnapping, and abduction in Uttar Pradesh. The state additionally tops the checklist in atrocities in opposition to marginalised teams, akin to Muslims and Dalits, who fall on the backside of India’s advanced caste system.

Though the rules require a magisterial inquiry into an encounter dying, rights activist and former prime police officer from Uttar Pradesh, SR Darapuri, informed Al Jazeera such inquiries aren’t useful.

“Magistrates obviously would not go against the police because they work with them. That is why most police officers go unpunished,” he stated.

‘Criminals, mafias active and flourishing’

Mehmood Pracha, a legal lawyer in New Delhi, faults the judiciary for the police’s unlawful actions.

“The police is not only bound by administrative directions but also bound by the supervision of the magistrate. Magistrates have completely surrendered, and this is across the country, to the deeds or misdeeds of the police, which obviously emanate from political directions, legal or illegal irrespective,” he informed Al Jazeera.

Experts additionally say the justice redressal framework {that a} sufferer or their household has recourse to is weak.

“Since most of the victims of encounters are from marginalised sections, going to a state high court is expensive for them. Even if one manages to, they are not heard properly. Instead, they undergo further harassment by police officials who pressurise or threaten them with dire consequences or false cases,” Darapuri stated.

The knowledge by the NHRC, the place no payment is required for submitting circumstances, reveals that Uttar Pradesh accounted for the very best variety of circumstances closed by the rights physique “without reason”.

Many others consider the foundation reason behind such points in Uttar Pradesh lies with its political management.

“How do you think the police will act if the state’s leader is a goon himself? What will they do if the leader says ‘shoot them’ every now and then,” rights defender Shoib stated, referring to Adityanath’s many public statements the place he threatened to kill criminals to get rid of crime.

Darapuri, reflecting on his expertise as an Uttar Pradesh police officer, stated the extrajudicial killings don’t lower crime, a declare typically made by Adityanath whereas defending his “encounter” coverage.

“Criminals and mafias are very much active and flourishing. The only difference is that most are now siding with Adityanath. Criminals siding with opposition parties are the ones being eliminated and their killings turned into a public sport,” he stated.

BJP spokeswoman Anila Singh disagreed with the costs, saying a “fake and false narrative is being created by the opposition parties and activists” in opposition to the Uttar Pradesh authorities.

“The police encounters are not staged, as if they are dramas,” she stated.

Singh claimed quite a lot of law enforcement officials have died or been injured within the encounters.

“Every time there is an encounter, there is an inquiry. Hence, we are the only people who believe in the constitution and law of the land. But opposition parties do selective outrage,” she informed Al Jazeera.

But lawyer Pracha says the BJP, and its ideological mentor, the far-right Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), are attempting to convey a message by means of such encounter killings.

“The message they want to give is that our system as established by law and the constitution is insufficient or incapable of providing security and justice to the common masses,” he informed Al Jazeera.

“Therefore, we [referring to BJP leaders] as individuals are better than the entire system, that we are so upright and honest that these checks and balances and the entire system formulated by a democratic process starting from the formulation of the constitution are useless.”