Notorious gangster and politician Atiq Ahmed, who won assembly elections from Allahabad’s City West constituency five times, was shot dead along with his brother Ashraf Ahmed while being taken for a medical checkup in Prayagraj. The killers, who were posing as media personnel carrying an obsolete video camera and ID of a fake media channel, shot Atiq in the head from behind at point-blank range. The brothers’ murder came just days after Atiq’s son Asad and his accomplice Ghulam were killed in an exchange of fire with the Uttar Pradesh Police near Jhansi, where both were wanted for murder. Atiq had predicted his own death to a journalist way back in 2004 when he was contesting and ultimately won a parliamentary seat from Phulpur constituency. Asked about how he envisaged his end, since he was a criminal himself, he had admitted candidly about his premonition: “Encounter hoga. Ya police maari, ya koi apni biradari ka sirfira. Sadak ke kinare pade milab (I will be killed in an encounter by either police or someone from the criminals’ tribe).” He had philosophized that every day was a struggle to escape his ordeal and delay the inevitable, adding that, “We all know, as criminals, what will be our fate.”
