Atiq Ahmed's son, sharpshooter Mohammed Ghulam buried in Prayagraj amid heavy security

PRAYAGRAJ: The bodies of jailed gangster-politician Atiq Ahmed's son Mohammed Asad and sharpshooter Ghulam Mohammed, who were killed in an encounter with UP STF on April 13 in Jhansi, were laid to rest in Prayagraj on Saturday morning amid watertight security.
While Asad was buried at a graveyard in Kasari Masari, Ghulam's body was laid to rest at Mehendauri graveyard. Asad's parents Atiq and Shaista were not present at the burial. Atiq, who is in police remand, had moved court on Friday seeking permission to attend the funeral of his son.
But since Friday was a holiday on account of Ambedkar Jayanti, the request was sent to the remand magistrate. However, the burial took place before Atiq's application could be taken up by the court on Saturday. Atiq's father-in-law Haroon attended the burial.
The officials said the body of Ghulam was laid to rest at Mehendauri graveyard in the presence of his wife Sana, his father Maksudul Hasan and in-laws along with some locals.
Asad and Ghulam, both wanted in the lawyer Umesh Pal murder case, were shot dead in an exchange of fire with the Uttar Pradesh Police STF near Jhansi on Thursday. Both carried a reward of Rs 5 lakh on their heads. Both had been caught on CCTV cameras when Umesh Pal was killed and had been on the run for the past about 50 days.
Earlier, their bodies reached Prayagraj from Jhansi in the morning and Asad's body was taken straight to the graveyard at Kasari Masari where heavy police along with RAF was deployed. Media was strictly restricted from entering the heavily guarded graveyard.
All rituals were performed at the graveyard. Limited entry was allowed inside the graveyard and details of everyone recorded in a register.
While the process of burial was in progress, some locals tried to assemble at the entry lane of the graveyard, but the local police dispersed them by appealing to them to go back to their houses.
Additional commissioner of police Akash Kulhari said: "It was the decision of the family to directly take the body of Asad to the graveyard. Around 100 people were present at the graveyard, including family members like maternal grandfather Haroon. Neither, Atiq nor his wife Shaista Parveen, who is at present absconding, attended the last rites of their son." Earlier on Friday, four family members of the Atiq had reached Jhansi medical college to claim Asad's body. They were supposed to arrive on Friday but completing formalities at the morgue led to delay and they reached Prayagraj on Saturday morning. In view of the burial, Prayagraj police had made elaborate security in old city areas like Kareli, Kasari Masari and Chakia and deployed additional police forces, including RAF, to maintain law and order.
The areas considered pocket boroughs of the don witnessed an eerie silence with small groups of men and women being spotted near the ancestral house of Atiq at Chakia. This house was razed by the administration in September last year for not following building norms.