Of the 13 attackers who allegedly killed Umesh Pal and his two guards on February 24 under Dhumanganj Police Station in Prayagraj, the one trending the most and on Uttar Pradesh Police’s radar is dreaded gangster Guddu Muslim — a thick moustached man sporting a white shirt, a pair of jeans and sports shoes seen allegedly taking out crude bombs from a black bag and hurling at the trio.
Mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, and his brother Ashraf were shot while they were being taken for a medical check-up in Prayagraj on April 15 night. Atiq’s son Asad was killed in an encounter two days ago in Jhansi.
Apparently, Atiq and Ashraf spoke about Guddu Muslim before being shot.
Atiq, his wife Shaista, his sons and others have been named accused in the attack on Pal, a key witness in the 2005 murder case of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Raju Pal.
The alleged CCTV footage of the killing shows Guddu Muslim and others attacking Pal, raising a question mark on UP’s law and order situation. It has also put many, who have seen his transformation from a college-going Guddu to ‘Guddu Bambaaz’ and ‘Guddu Muslim’, a moniker he earned owing to his expertise in crude bomb-making, into ‘flashback mode’
FLASHBACK MODE
“It was indeed like going into flashback as the name Guddu Muslim surfaced in Umesh Pal’s killing. The entire background of Guddu alias Guddu Muslim – the name which he got during his college days in Allahabad University, popped up in front of me," said Brij Lal, a 1977 batch IPS officer, the former Director General of Police (DGP) of UP, who started his career from Prayagraj, which then was known as Allahabad.
Lal, an Allahabad University (AU) passout, said Guddu, who was born and brought up in Prayagraj, gained popularity in the 1990s. “I started my career from Prayagraj. I was posted there as the Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and then as SP Rural. Back then, Atiq and Guddu Muslim used to be the less familiar names, but later on, the duo became quite popular in the world of crime. Back then, Guddu was not part of Atiq’s camp," the retired IPS officer recalled.
CRUDE BOMB MAKER
But what made Guddu even more popular was his expertise at making crude bombs at lightning speed. “Guddu learned bomb making in his school days. He also underwent bomb-making training in Bengal where bomb making is a ‘cottage industry’. He honed his skills which fetched him the title of ‘Guddu Bambaaz’ or ‘Guddu Muslim’," Brij Lal said.
Guddu gained such expertise that he could make bombs while riding a bike or even while on the run. “It hardly takes him a minute or two to assemble a crude bomb. Be it riding a bike or while on the run, he could assemble a crude bomb from the raw material he used to carry in his pocket and launch it within seconds. This made Guddu quite popular among the gangsters of UP, making him their all-time favourite," he further said.
“There was no looking back for Guddu, by then transformed into Guddu Bambaaz or Guddu Muslim," said Rajesh Pandey, retired IG, who remained a part of Special Task Force (STF), when it was formed in UP.
FREDERICK GOMES MURDER
Pandey said that fed up with his notorious activities and association with the criminals, his father, Mohammed Safeeq, got him enrolled in the University of Lucknow, but didn’t make any difference.
“Guddu’s name first surfaced in the murder of Fredrick Gomes, a PT (physical training) teacher of La Martiniere College in Lucknow in 1977. Despite committing the crime, police failed to prove him guilty. Guddu was then part of the gang of Satyendra Singh, a history-sheeter of Faizabad who was killed in a gang war in 1996 with Shriprakash Shukla, another dreaded gangster," Pandey added.
Guddu used to reside in Lucknow in OCR Building in Hussainganj area before finally shifting to Gorakhpur where he met Parvez Tada, another mafia of Gorakhpur, for whom he used to make crude bombs.
MOVED TO BIHAR
However, after the encounter of Shriprakash Shukla in 1998, police said, Guddu moved to Bihar and joined hands with Bihar don Udaybhan and used to visit UP quite often to execute crimes. In 2001, the UP Police arrested him in Patna, but he managed to get bail. He then joined Atiq Ahmed’s camp, Guddu was also chargesheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2019 in the murder of Raju Pal.
ABSCONDING, Rs 5 Lakh for INFO
Guddu Muslim and others who attacked Umesh Pal are still absconding. UP Police claimed to have scanned around 10,000 phone calls. On condition of anonymity, a senior police officer said that police is on the lookout.
Also, the reward amount on Guddu Muslim, Mohammed Asad (Atiq’s son), Arman, Gulam and Sabir have been increased to Rs 5 lakh each. This is perhaps the first time in a decade that such a huge reward has been announced for absconders.
Read all the Latest India News here
Comments
0 comment