Senior leaders of the ruling party, including chief minister Yogi Adityanath and his ministers, either reworked or altered their Sunday schedule as the government’s entire focus shifted on ensuring peace across the state in the aftermath of the Saturday’s cold-blooded murders of mafia-politician brothers Atiq and Ashraf Ahmad.
Adityanath held meetings with senior officials to take stock of the situation at his Kalidas Marg residence even as a large contingent of media personnel kept waiting outside to learn about the developments.
While the U.P. BJP chief Bhupendra Chaudhary and state general secretary (organisation) Dharampal Singh were in Delhi to finalise tickets for the civic polls, other party functionaries either cancelled or curtailed their assignments.
Senior Yogi government ministers, including deputy chief ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak, too had reworked their engagements, sources said.
BJP REACTIONS
A lawmaker from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rajeshwar Singh, said the murders were proof that those who ‘live by the gun, die by the gun!’
“Atiq … Criminal/mafia/gangster. 100 named FIRs/54 trials but little progress as witnesses turned hostile. 144 gang members as per police gang chart/10 HC judges recused from hearing his cases/11000 crore assets. Old saying. Those who live by the gun, die by the gun!!(sic),” tweeted Rajeshwar, a former joint director of the enforcement directorate who joined the BJP ahead of the 2022 U.P. elections and won from the Sarojininagar assembly constituency in Lucknow.
Minister of state for higher education Rajni Tiwari wrote a Sanskrit saying that means that one reaps what one sows. However, she deleted her post after a while.
UP’s jail minister Dharamvir Prajapati said, “What can I say? Those who tormented others, captured lands and killed many had been cursed by many. This is what resulted in Saturday’s development.” Earlier, state finance minister Suresh Khanna and jal shakti minister Swatantra Dev had described it as ‘godly intervention’. BJP MLA Nand Kishore Gurjar said, “One gets what one deserves.”
VHP distances itself from assailants
Lucknow: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has distanced itself from the three assailants who killed Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf in Prayagraj on Saturday night.
“There is a rumour about VHP’s involvement in Atiq Ahmad’s murder. This is completely untrue and misleading. The U.P. government is probing the role of those behind the murders. Truth will be out,” the VHP tweeted from its official handle. HTC