Ittehad-e-Millat Council (IMC) chief Maulana Tauqeer Raza has alleged that Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath has played a pivotal role in the killing of Atiq Ahmed and Ashraf Ahmed in Prayagraj. Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan also demanded that Yogi Adityanath should be held accused of criminal conspiracy in this case.
Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan held a press conference on Monday, 17th April 2023. In this press conference, he said, “There is only one person to be blamed for all the encounters that have taken place till date including the encounter of Vikas Dubey. The man who first says he will reduce them to dust and then does what he said must be held accused of 120B.”
Section 120B of the IPC refers to criminal conspiracy to commit an offence carrying punishment up to death. According to the Maulana, as Yogi Adityanath had said that ‘Mafia ko mitti mein mila denge’, after which Atiq Ahmed was killed, therefore the CM should be made guilty of criminal conspiracy to kill the mafia don.
While speaking to UP Tak, Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan also defended Atiq Ahmed’s wife Shaista. He said, “A woman is accused under Section 120B. In fact, Yogi Adityanath should be accused of 120B, but here Shaista is accused. I would like to demand at this time that according to the Shariat, it is obligatory for a Beva (widow woman) that she should stay in “Iddat” for 4 months and 10 days and not show her face to any forbidden person (or a strange man). My appeal is that Shaista should be searched for and if she is found, her face should not be exposed. She is in the middle of her “iddat period” and till the end of iddat, she should be kept under house arrest.”
Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan announced an indefinite sit-in protest on Thursday, 20th April 2023. After this, the police put him under house arrest. Due to this, he could not easily go out of the house for Namaz. A large number of policemen were deployed outside his house.
Maulana Tauqeer Raza Khan said in an interaction with UP Tak, “If I threatened to kill someone, then even if I didn’t kill him, and someone else killed him, won’t there be any case against me? He (Yogi Adityanath) announced in the Assembly House that he would reduce them to dust and then he literally reduced them to dust, whether the case can be made against him or not? I have such a simple question. If such a case is booked, he should face it.”
He further said, “Today, I am not protesting in support of Atiq, but in support of the court. If people supporting the court are villains for you, then you present them as a villain. The Chief Minister said in the House, his ministers and leaders also said that the car will overturn, this will happen, and that will happen. This means that they had planned to do this. If there is an honest investigation, he will be found guilty, but I do not expect an honest investigation. If there is anything called justice left and Yogi Adityanath Ji has even the slightest bit of humanity in his heart, then he should face this trial and resign from his post till the trial is done.”
Gangster Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed were killed on 15th April 2023 while being taken for a medical checkup in the government hospital in Prayagraj at around 10:40 pm. All three assailants were arrested by the police on the spot. The investigations, in this case, are going on.
