Former Indian politician and brother shot dead live on TV

BBC reported that a former Indian politician convicted of kidnapping has been shot dead live on TV along with his brother.

Atiq Ahmed, who was under police escort facing murder and assault charges, was talking to journalists when a gun was pulled close to his head. After the shots were fired, three man who had been posing as journalists quickly surrendered and were taken into custody, local media reported.

Ahmed’s teenage son was shot dead by police days earlier. Ahmed had previously claimed there was a threat to his life from the police.

Video showed Ahmed and his brother, Ashraf, speaking to journalists on the way to a medical check-up at a nearby hospital seconds before they were both shot.

Atiq Ahmed’s teenage son Asad and another man, wanted in connection with a murder case, were killed by police earlier this week in what was described as a shoot-out.

In the footage, Ahmed is asked whether he attended his son’s funeral, and his last words to camera are: “They did not take us, so we did not go.”

The three men who had posed as journalists surrendered soon after the shooting, local media reported. A policeman and a journalist were also injured on the scene, police said.

Ahmed, who is a former MP, and his brother were in police custody and had been brought to Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, where Ahmed was facing murder and assault charges. He was jailed in 2019 after he was convicted of kidnapping.

Last month India’s Supreme Court declined to hear his petition in which he alleged there was a threat to his life from the police.

Uttar Pradesh is governed by the Hindu-nationalist BJP, and opposition parties criticised the killings as a security lapse.

More than a 180 people facing various charges have been killed by police in Uttar Pradesh state in the past six years. Opposition parties say there is a climate of fear. Rights activists accuse the police of carrying out extra judicial killings, which the state’s government denies.