With the murder of Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf on Saturday, Prayagraj’s ‘gangster era’ of nearly 50 years has come to an end, according to former police officers and political observers.
Posing as journalists, three men, Lovlesh Tiwari, Sunny Singh and Arun Maurya, allegedly shot dead the duo at point blank range while speaking to reporters after his medical examination.
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“No more gangs and gang wars! The assassination of Ahmed has put an end to the gangster era in Prayagraj, the ancient Allahabad,” said Brij Lal, an Indian Police Services (IPS) officer from 1977, who served as the former Director General of Police. (DGP) from Uttar Pradesh and started his career at Prayagraj.
Lal has seen up close the rise and fall of mobster-turned-politician Ahmed. “It was nothing less than a bollywood movie. But Ahmed’s conviction broke the myth that mafias always manage to escape the clutches of the law,” Lal said.
FIRST MURDER IN 1979
Born in Shravasti, Ahmed entered the world of crime with his first murder in 1979. His name first appeared in police records from Prayagraj’s Khuldabad police station. Soon, Ahmed was at odds with then-feared gangster Shauq-e-Ilahi, also known as ‘Chand Baba’ from the old city area, a senior police official said. After several shootouts and gang warfare, Ilahi was killed in a police encounter in 1989, the former DGP said.
AHMED AND CHAND BABA
“Before Ahmed, Ilahi was the most feared gangster of the late 1970s and early 1980s,” said Abhay Awasthi, a social scientist and former head of the Allahabad students’ union, who strongly believes Chand Baba was the guru. from Ahmed.
“In 1986, Illahi committed the first murder. He killed a seer, earning himself the name ‘Chand Baba’. From there, there was no turning back in the world of crime,” Awasthi said.
People say that Ahmed first had a good bond with Ilahi. In 1988, Ahmed expressed his willingness to run in the 1989 assembly elections as an independent. Ilahi gave him the go-ahead, but after being brainwashed by his political patrons, he submitted a nomination from the same constituency, Allahabad West. This put the two at odds.
On November 6, 1989, the Chowk area witnessed a gruesome gang war near Raushan Bagh Dhaal, in which Ilahi was killed. The next day, the result of the assembly election was announced, in which Ahmed won by around 25,909 votes, while Ilahi got only 9,221 votes.
5 TERMS LIKE MLA
With no one to challenge him, Ahmed’s muscular strength grew with each passing year. His entry into politics further strengthened his control over the region. In 1989, Ahmed was elected as an MLA from the Allahabad West assembly constituency. He won five consecutive terms between 1989 and 2004. In 2004, he won the Phoolpur Lok Sabha seat and served as an MP until 2009.
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When the Bahujan Samaj MLA Raju Pal party challenged his influence and defeated his brother Khalid Azeem in the elections, Ahmed and his men killed Pal in public view in Prayagraj. In this period, the first information reports (FIR) against him also multiplied in Prayagraj, Kaushambi, Chitrakoot, Lucknow, Kanpur and even in other states. In around four decades, 101 criminal incidents involving the former Samajwadi Party (SP) leader directly or indirectly arose in the state.
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