UP cops wait in vain for Atiq-Ashraf ‘chaliswa’

Prayagraj: The UP Police have been waiting for the day and launched a massive patrolling operation but to no success.

On Thursday, the death of mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf completed 40 days.

The two were gunned down in police custody by three armed assailants at Motilal Nehru (Colvin) Divisional Hospital on April 15 night while being taken for a court mandated medical examination.

May 25 was supposed to be the ‘chaliswa’ of the Ahmad brothers — a ritual held to mark 40 days of death.

The police, all through the day, kept an eye on the graves of Atiq and Ashraf at Kasari Masari graveyard and at their relatives’ homes in Chakia area.

Atiq’s wife Shaista Parveen and Ashraf’s wife Zainab are on the run.

Atiq’s two sons Umar and Ali are in separate jails while two minor sons are lodged in a child shelter home in Rajruppur.

Media reports had suggested that Shaista and Zainab may emerge on Thursday for the ‘chaliswa’ ritual, where recitation of Quran takes place and food and clothes are given to the poor.

Sources said that a close relative of Atiq may have performed the rituals at his home in the absence of family members.

He said that the ‘chaliswa’ ritual does not require a visit to the grave of the deceased person. Moreover, anyone can perform ‘fatiha’ for a deceased person at his home with his family members and can distribute food among the poor for peace of the departed soul.

“Publicising the event would have led to more trouble for family members who have been hounded by the police after the Umesh Pal murder. The rituals were apparently held quietly in the family. The chaliswa of Atiq’s son Asad, who was killed in an encounter on April 13, was held in a similar manner,” the source said.

Both Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf were accused in the Umesh Pal murder case.

Umesh Pal, the prime witness in the 2005 Raju Pal murder case, and his two police security guards — Sandeep Nishad and Raghvendra Singh — were shot dead on February 24, 2023, outside his home in the Dhoomanganj police station area of Prayagraj.