Satya Pal Malik, the former governor of Kashmir, gave an explosive interview to a news channel and exposed the central government about the Pulwama attack, in which 40 Indian soldiers were killed in February 2019. This attack was the BJP’s political agenda. Modi asked for votes in the name of martyred jawans, but sadly, he let them become casualties. This made headlines, though the mainstream media was quiet, but the social media and other parallel media houses made a lot of noise.
Indian-educated people could not digest the injustice done to Indian soldiers. The nation was stunned, and everyone was talking about the Pulwama attack. Mallik also mentioned how the Central Reserve Police Force asked for the jet to transport its workforces, but the home minister deprived them of basic facilities.
Besides Modi, Indian national security adviser Ajit Doval also told Malik not to speak, which forced him to understand that the intent was to put the blame on Pakistan for political gains. This is what Mallik told Karan Thapar.
The next day, we forgot this news because the mainstream media gave us big breaking news on gangster Atiq Ahmed and his brother’s live killing. The same media that was muted on Pulwama has a series of prime-time debates on Atiq Ahmed’s killing with all sorts of justification. In the presence of huge media and police personnel, Atiq was shot at least nine times in his shocking murder on camera outside a hospital in Uttar Pradesh. There was no counterfire from police; the shooters were silently waiting to be caught by UP police. There was big drama; on social media, some people were celebrating the killings, making Yogi a hero.
Five bullets were reportedly recovered from the body of Ashraf Ahmed, who was also shot dead outside the hospital in Prayagraj. The autopsy found that Atiq Ahmed was shot once in the head and eight times on the chest and back. The headshot was captured on live TV by three shooters, all of whom are now arrested. Atiq Ahmed, a former MLA and MP, faced at least 100 criminal cases. He had been in the headlines since February, when Umesh Pal, a lawyer and a witness in the 2005 murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal, was gunned down outside his home in Prayagraj.
Atiq Ahmed, the prime accused in the BSP MLA’s murder, was also named a suspect in Umesh Pal’s murder. In 2019, Atiq Ahmed was at a Gujarat prison, where he had been transferred after his alleged role in a businessman’s kidnapping. The past couple of months saw Atiq Ahmed being brought to Prayagraj for court hearings and then taken back to Gujarat, closely chased by mediapersons.
The gangster’s 19-year-old son Asad, also an accused in the Umesh Pal murder case, was shot dead in an encounter by the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force before Atiq gets killed. The MLA had repeatedly alleged that the Uttar Pradesh police planned to gun him down in a staged encounter. After a court date recently, he told the media, “It’s because of you that I am safe.” Fatefully, the gangster was talking to the press when his killers, also camouflaged as journalists, opened fire. It was a message to the gangsters and media people that no one can save anyone’s life if someone decides to eliminate them.
The Uttar Pradesh government came under strong criticism over glaring lapses in the prisoners’ security and the way police responded to the shooting. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered a high-level probe into the incident. The UP police have formed a three-member Special Investigation Team to probe the killings, but what is the point when three key members of one family get killed in one go? Do we really need law, order, and the judiciary? If someone is declared a gangster by the cops, it’s easy to gun them down in broad daylight.
And look at the mainstream media: they have no remorse for the Pulwama attack and the Jawans killing, but they are more interested in local gangsters killing. It looks like the notorious gangster Atiq and his brother are more important and newsworthy for this section of the media than the lives of our 40 brave soldiers who lost their lives in Pulwama allegedly due to negligence by the government. Why is there no media discussion of the revelation made by former Kashmir governor and BJP leader Sathyapal Malik on the Pulwama attack, and why is there no media asking why the government is silent on his revelation? Why did no media dare speak to Mallik and dig for the truth? Why did the media give the Pulwama attack the cold shoulder?
Atiq and Ashraf were handcuffed, presumably with due permission from the court and following standard operating procedures as laid out in the DK Basu vs. West Bengal case. In both the cases, be it the shootout of gangsters or the negligence of the government in the Pulwama attack, the state and central governments should be held accountable.
