Former politician and his brother shot dead on live TV by gunmen posing as journalists, reports say
- Former MP Atiq Ahmed, 60, and his brother were shot dead on live TV in Prayagraj, India.
- Ahmed has charges of murder, kidnapping, and assault.
A former Indian member of parliament, and his brother, have been shot dead live on TV in a shocking attack, the BBC reports.
Atiq Ahmed, 60, was speaking to reporters in Prayagraj, northern India, when an assailant reached over his police guards and shot Ahmed in the head.
His brother, Ashraf Ahmed, was shot seconds later.
Video of the assassination circulating on social media shows the men walking slowly with several media microphones held in front of the brothers. Suddenly, a gun is held to his temple and fired. Moments later, two men with handguns can be seen shooting into the bodies as they lie on the road.
The shooting happened when Ahmed was briefly released from prison — in handcuffs — for a medical checkup.
A police officer Ramit Sharma said the three attackers came on motorcycles posing as journalists.
"They managed to reach close to Atiq and his brother on the pretext of recording a byte and fired at them from close range. Both sustained bullet injuries on the head. It all happened in seconds," he said, per The Guardian.
Three men suspected of the shooting were quickly arrested. One chanted Hindu nationalist slogans, according to The Guardian.
The Ahmed brothers were sentenced to life in prison in March in a kidnapping case, just one of several cases levelled against Ahmed, including murder and assault.
According to Reuters, an anonymous senior police official for the Utter Pradesh state described the brothers as "members of a large mafia involved in land grabbing and murder cases."
Atiq Ahmed's death comes just days after one of his 19-year-old sons, Asad Ahmed was shot dead by police, Indian media reports.