'Battle Cry' & Revenge: Why Is UP Govt 'Hunting Down' Umesh Pal Murder Suspects?

Why did the UP govt go all guns blazing on Atiq's gang following the murder of Umesh Pal in a shootout?

In a shocking turn of events, gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf were gunned down by three shooters disguised as mediapersons outside a hospital in Prayagraj on 15 April 2023.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Video Producer: Shohini Bose

Video Editors: Mohd. Irshad Alam, Prajjwal Kumar

In a shocking turn of events, gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were gunned down by three shooters disguised as mediapersons outside a hospital in Prayagraj on 15 April 2023.

A 'bahubali' mafia who once called the shots in Prayagraj, Atiq's future was hanging by a thread, with the state forces grabbing every opportunity to tighten the noose around him.

In fact, Atiq had sensed what was coming for him; he had expressed that his life was in danger many a times.

Ever since the Yogi Adityanath government came to power in UP in March 2017, Atiq and his gang have sustained a massive crackdown. As per official records of the UP Police, land and property worth Rs 1,198 crore in Atiq's name were either sealed or demolished in "bulldozer action."

Atiq, his younger brother Ashraf, and Atiq's sons Umar and Ali Ahmad have been serving jail time following arrest or surrender in the respective criminal cases registered against them.

Against the sustained crackdown of the state, the once-dreaded gang had fallen silent and most of the gang members were inactive – or at least that's what the authorities believed until February 2023.

What Happened in February 2023?

For Atiq, who had more than 100 criminal cases against him and spent the last two decades behind bars, his glory days had become a thing of the past – when he ruled the roost from his citadel in Chakia area in Prayagraj.

However, on the afternoon of 24 February 2023, all speculations were proven wrong. At least five shooters ambushed Umesh Pal – the main witness in the 2005 murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal – who had just returned home from Prayagraj court after attending a hearing in a 2006 abduction case, in which Atiq and his brother Ashraf were among the accused.

The law enforcement agencies, based on purported CCTV footage, accused Atiq's third son Asad of allegedly leading the attack on Umesh Pal. At least five men, armed with guns, a rifle, and crude bombs, opened an attack on Umesh and his police-appointed gunners in broad daylight.

In the years to come, this incident, which caught the UP government completely off guard, would most likely be known as Atiq's Achilles heel. In the police crackdown that followed the shootout, four people, including Atiq's son Asad, have been killed in three separate encounters.

So, why did the UP government go all guns blazing against Atiq's gang following the murder of Umesh Pal in a daring shootout?

Big Dent to Govt's Revamped Law & Order Claim

The shootout in Prayagraj, in which Umesh Pal was killed on 24 February 2023, was as brazen as it could get. Sleuths investigating the incident claimed that the assailants made no attempt to even hide their faces. The theory that went around was that this was done to send a message and scare other witnesses in testifying against Atiq.

It was, however, the purported CCTV footage that kept the conversation around the deteriorating law and order situation in UP alive on social media and in public.

With the disturbing footage doing the rounds, the UP government had to slip into damage-control mode. From the multiple rounds fired from guns to a middle-aged man hurling bombs in broad daylight, the footage not only punctured, but blew a massive hole in the state's claim of revamped law and order in the new regime.

The government responded to it by roping in the state task force (STF), a unit that has delivered every time the government landed in troubled waters.

Encounter Seen as CM Keeping His Promise?

On 25 February 2023, a day after the Prayagraj shootout, the Opposition was having a field day on the floor of the UP Assembly, with sharp attacks on the government over the deteriorating law and order.

Responding to the Opposition, chief minister Yogi Adityanath, in a high-pitched tone, said, "Iss mafia (Atiq) ko mitti mein mila denge."

This 'battle cry' was heard far and wide. Atiq's sister Ayesha Noori, in a press conference in Prayagraj, said, "Uss samay vidhan sabha mein mukhymantri ji ko Akhilesh ji ne iss byaan ke liye uksaya tha. (In the Assembly, Akhilesh Yadav instigated Yogi Adityanath in making this statement)."

With the STF pressed into action for a manhunt to trace the assailants, speculations of encounters of the accused had begun doing rounds.

Following the death of Asad and Ghulam in an encounter with a team of UP STF on 13 April in Jhansi and the murder of Atiq and his brother Ashraf in Prayagraj, CM Adityanath is now being lauded by the ruling party sympathisers for keeping his "promise" made in the Assembly.

Cop Killings: A Death Warrant?

In the current regime, barring the exception of the killing of inspector Subodh Kumar in Bulandshahr in 2018, the UP Police have avenged in blood the death of police personnel murdered in the line of duty.

From constable Devendra Singh killed by the liquor mafia in Kasganj in 2021 to eight policemen killed by Vikas Dubey and his gang in Kanpur in 2020, the UP Police has resorted to encounters in the immediate aftermath of these incidents.

In the Prayagraj incident on 24 February 2023, two gunners – Raghvendra Singh and Sandeep Nishad – who were with Umesh Pal, were also killed in the line of duty.

When The Quint spoke to IPS (retd) Prakash Singh, the former director general of police (UP), he said that the killing of a police official would be perceived differently.

"Tell me what will happen to you if someone near and dear to you gets killed. Like you, the police will also be [enraged]. I will leave it at that," he said.