Uttar Pradesh has turned into a "lawless state", the CPI(M) alleged on Sunday after gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother were killed while being escorted by police to a Prayagraj hospital.
In a statement, the party said the "ghastly killing" of Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf, while in police custody and in front of the media, shows that Uttar Pradesh has become a completely "lawless state".
"The manner in which two men were murdered in the presence of heavy police escort points towards official connivance. This must be seen in the background of the repeated spate of encounter killings which are nothing but extra judicial murders.
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"The Adityanath government is directly responsible for this state of affairs," the CPI(M) said.
Ahmad and his brother Khalid Azeem alias Ashraf were shot dead at point-blank range by three men posing as journalists in the middle of a media interaction on Saturday night while being escorted by police personnel to a medical college in Prayagraj for a checkup.
The Uttar Pradesh government on Sunday constituted a three-member judicial commission to probe into the killings of Ahmad and Ashraf.
The commission will be headed by retired high court judge Arvind Kumar Tripathi. Retired judge Brijesh Kumar Soni and former DGP Subesh Kumar Singh will be its members, officials said in Prayagraj.
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"There has to be a high-level inquiry with a sitting judge of the high court heading it. All those behind these murders must be identified and stringent action must be taken," the CPI(M) said.
