JOIN USGang war threat looms large in UP
The recent killing of a relative of a prominent mafia don and attack on one of his close aides allegedly by the rival gang in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi district, threaten to turn into a full-scale gangwar in the eastern region. Rivalry between the two groups has claimed many a lives in the past.
State intelligence agencies have warned that there was a ‘real possibility’ of break out of war between the rival gangs as the gang, whose members have been targeted recently, was seething for revenge.
While one of the gangs was controlled by mafia don turned politician Mukhtar Ansari, an independent legislator from Mau assembly constituency, the other is led by Brijesh Singh, who is currently in jail on various charges, including murder.
Ansari is also in jail in connection with a murder case.
Singh’s nephew Satish Singh was recently sprayed with bullets at a village in Varanasi while his aide Ajai Singh was attacked a few days back. Ansari and seven others have been named in the murder of Satish. Intelligence said that Singh’s gang is making preparations to launch counter attacks.
“We have information that the jailed members of both the gangs could be targeted during their appearance in the courts”, said a police official here.
Senior police officials have alerted the district authorities and directed them to take extra precautions while transporting the undertrials of both gangs from jails to the courts and back.
In the past too, the two gangs had targeted each other during court appearances.
An aide of Brijesh Singh had been killed in police custody while he was being transported back to Azamgarh jail from Varanasi after appearing in the court some years back.
Authorities have also stepped up security in and around the jails where Ansari and another members of Singh’s gang had been kept, sources said.