Opposition parties have questioned the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh and demanded that the state government be dismissed after gangster-turned-politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf were shot dead in Prayagraj on Saturday.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said crime had reached its peak in Uttar Pradesh, criminals were unfazed and jungle law prevailed in the state. 

Reacting to the incident, Akhilesh Yadav said in a tweet in Hindi: "When someone can be shot dead amidst a police cordon, then what about the safety of the general public? An atmosphere of fear is being created among the public due to this and it seems that some people are deliberately creating such an atmosphere."

“During Samajwadi Party regime, metro rail, expressway, IT City and laptop dominated the agenda of the public discourse while under the present Bharatiya Janata Party government crime, criminals, guns and pistols are the talk of the town,” he added.

Senior SP leader Ram Gopal Yadav in a tweet in Hindi said, "Chief minister's order 'mitti mein mila denge', Atiq Ahmad's petition in the Supreme Court demanding security owing to threat of death in custody -- No relief. Then fake encounters and planned murders in police custody were bound to happen. It would not be surprising if Atiq's other sons are also killed."

“The cold-blooded killings are the height of anarchy in Uttar Pradesh. This can't happen without a go-ahead from the top. In any other democracy the state government would have been dismissed for such a heinous crime against the rule of law,” Bahujan Samaj Party MP Danish Ali claimed.

In a tweet, Rajya Sabha member Kapil Sibal said, "Two murders in UP: 1) Atiq Ahmed and brother Ashraf, 2) Rule of law.”

Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary asked whether 'jungle raj' prevails in the state.

"Nobody is sympathising with Atiq Ahmad because a criminal should be punished. But anyone who sees this video (of Atiq and Ashraf’s killing) will question if we are a democracy. Every criminal has the right to be heard in court and be convicted there. But you can see they were killed in police custody in the open," he said.

"The chief minister should answer what kind of law and order he has established in the state. Is this not jungle raj and a ground to call for emergency rule in UP?” asked Jayant Chaudhary. 

"Uttar Pradesh has turned into a "lawless state", the Communist Party of India (Marxist) alleged on Sunday after gangster-politician Atiq Ahmad and his brother were killed while being escorted by police to a Prayagraj hospital.

In a statement, the party said the "ghastly killing" of Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf, while in police custody and in front of the media, showed that Uttar Pradesh had become a completely "lawless state".

"The manner in which two men were murdered in the presence of heavy police escort points towards official connivance. This must be seen in the background of the repeated spate of encounter killings which are nothing but extrajudicial murders," the party said.

"The Adityanath government is directly responsible for this state of affairs," the CPI(M) added.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) said that it was evident from the murder of Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf Ahmed in police custody in Prayagraj that there was no rule of law in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Uttar Pradesh.

CPI (ML) state secretary Sudhakar Yadav said in a statement on Sunday that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had been consistently calling the extrajudicial killings being carried out in the name of encounter as an effective step against crime.

The tragic end of Ahmad and his brother came on a day the former MP's son Asad, who was killed in a police encounter in Jhansi on April 13, was buried in Prayagraj.

Ahmad (61) and Ashraf were shot dead at point-blank range by three men posing as journalists in the middle of a media interaction on Saturday night while police personnel were escorting them to a medical college in Prayagraj for a check-up.

The brothers, both jailed in Prayagraj, were in handcuffs when they were killed in full view of camera crews around on Saturday night. The horrifying visuals were circulated widely on social media platforms and television channels.

Ahmad and his brother were brought to Prayagraj for a court hearing in connection with the Umesh Pal murder case and were remanded to police custody. Umesh Pal, a key witness in the murder case of BSP MLA Raju Pal, and his two police security guards were shot dead outside his Dhoomanganj residence here on February 24. Based on a complaint lodged by Umesh Pal's wife Jaya Pal, a case was registered on February 25 against Atiq Ahmad, Ashraf, Ahmad's wife Shaista Parveen, two sons, aides Guddu Muslim and Ghulam, and nine others.