Thread by @OfficialSauravD

#StoryAlert 🚨

On April 15, former Indian parliamentarian and gangster Atiq Ahmed was shot dead by three assailants – a brazen attack caught on live television. But his killing is alleged to be a "political murder".

My report for @AJEnglish. A thread 🧵
aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/25…

Atiq and his brother Ashraf were being escorted by the police in the northern city of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh state for a “routine medical checkup” late that night when a group of journalists stopped them. The 3 suspected attackers, posing as journalists, fired multiple shots.

Atiq's death, like many other extrajudicial killings, is not free of suspicion of foul play by the state.

On the day India's Supreme Court rejected his plea for protection, Atiq’s brother Ashraf told reporters that a senior police officer in Uttar Pradesh had threatened...
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...to have him killed within two weeks. And eventually, he was.

I spoke to Atiq’s lawyer, Vijay Mishra, who said that "He had not complained of any medical issues. There was no purpose for the late-night hospital visit. Doctors are available inside prisons,".
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More worryingly, he said, “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,”.

Local eyewitness accounts had said they saw the shooters getting off police van before Atiq was brought in.

“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,” Mishra said.

This begs the question- why were...

...only a few men guarding him? Where was the usual large contingent of state police officers and federal security officers?

Encounter guidelines flouted

Guidelines and procedures issued by the Supreme Court and the NHRC require that police officers use force only when... 7/

...absolutely necessary and that such force be proportional to the threat posed by a suspect.

However, experts @AJEnglish spoke with say the guidelines have done little to check police violations and provide for an effective redressal system for justice.
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“The human rights commission in Uttar Pradesh is practically non-existent,” Mohammed Shoib, a rights defender and criminal lawyer in Uttar Pradesh said.

“The commission is in favour of Adityanath’s government. 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 said.
This is corroborated by NCRB data that noted an increase in cases of rape, kidnapping, and abduction in Uttar Pradesh.
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UP also tops the list in atrocities against marginalised groups, such as Muslims and Dalits, who fall at the bottom of India’s complex caste system.

Though guidelines require a magisterial inquiry into an encounter death, rights activist and former top police officer from UP..

...SR Darapuri, told @AJEnglish such inquiries are not helpful.

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

@MehmoodPracha faults the judiciary for the police’s illegal actions.

“Police is not only bound by administrative directions but also bound by d supervision of d magistrate. Magistrates have completely surrendered, & this is across d country, to the deeds or misdeeds of d police, which obviously emanate from political directions, legal or illegal”.

“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 told me.

If one sees the NHRC data, it shows that Uttar Pradesh accounted for the highest number of cases closed by the rights body “without reason”. So if a victim or their family approaches NHRC, chances for justice are low.

“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,” Shoib said, referring to @myogiadityanath's many public statements where he threatened to kill criminals to eliminate crime.
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Darapuri, reflecting on his police experience as an Uttar Pradesh police officer, said the extrajudicial killings do not decrease crime, a claim often made by Adityanath while defending his “encounter” policy.

He makes an important claim.
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“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 d ones being eliminated and their killings turned into a public sport,” Darapuri, the former UP top cop said.

BJP spokeswoman Anila Singh disagreed with the charges, saying a “fake and false narrative is being created by the opposition parties and activists” against the Uttar Pradesh government.
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@MehmoodPracha says something very important. Read carefully.

That the BJP, and its ideological mentor, the far-right Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), are trying to convey a message through such encounter killings. What message?
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“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 told Al Jazeera.
(contd.)

“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.”.

More on this issue here. Do read, share, and retweet!

@_sufiyana_ @msaifkhalid

{End} 23/23

aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/25…