One of the 13 assailants who allegedly killed Umesh Pal and his two guards on February 24 under Prayagraj’s Dhoomanganj police station is one of the most trending and dreaded gangster Guddu Muslim on the radar of the Uttar Pradesh police – a white shirt , a man with a thick moustache. A man wearing jeans and a pair of sports shoes was allegedly seen taking out a crude bomb from a black bag and throwing it at the three.
Mafia-turned-politician Atiq Ahmed, his wife Shaista, their sons and others have been named as accused in the case. sail attackA key witness in the 2005 murder case of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA Raju Pal.
Read this also | ‘Mafia’s son will be killed’: MP’s remark meant to highlight UP govt’s law and order failure, says SP leader
The purported CCTV footage of the murder shows Guddu Muslim and others attacking Pal, which raises questions about the law and order situation in UP. It has also put many people, who have witnessed his transformation from college-going Guddu into ‘Guddu Bambaz’ and ‘Guddu Muslim’, a nickname he earned because of his expertise in making crude bombs, in ‘flashback mode’
flashback mode
“It was actually like going into a flashback as Guddu Muslim’s name came up in Umesh Pal’s murder. The entire background of Guddu alias Guddu Muslim – the name he got during his college days at Allahabad University – came to my notice,” said former Director General of Police (DGP) Brij Lal, a 1977 batch IPS officer. UP, who started his career from Prayagraj, then known as Allahabad.
Allahabad University (AU) passout Lal said Guddu, born and brought up in Prayagraj, gained popularity in the 1990s. “I started my career from Prayagraj. I was posted there as Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and then as SP Rural. Atiq and Guddu Muslim were little-known names at that time, but later both became very popular in the world of crime. At that time, Guddu was not a part of Atiq’s camp,” recalled the retired IPS officer.
crude bomb maker
But what made Guddu even more popular was his expertise in making crude bombs at lightning speed. Guddu learned to make bombs during his school days. He also took training in bomb making in Bengal where bomb making is a ‘cottage industry’. He honed his skills which earned him the title of ‘Guddu Bambaz’ or ‘Guddu Muslim’,” said Brijlal.
Read this also | Umesh Pal Murder: Arrests, Bulldozers and Encounters, UP Government’s Action on ‘Mafia’ So Far | top marks
Guddu had such expertise that he could make bombs while riding a bike or even running. “It hardly takes a minute or two for him to assemble the crude bomb. Whether on a bike ride or while running, he could assemble a crude bomb from raw materials 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 added.
“There was no looking back for Guddu, till then Guddu turned into Bambaz or Guddu Muslim,” said Rajesh Pandey, retired IG who remained part of the Special Task Force (STF) in UP.
Frederick Gomes Murder
Pandey said that fed up with his notorious activities and association with criminals, his father Mohammad Safiq got him admitted in Lucknow University, but it did not make any difference.
“Guddu’s name first surfaced in the 1977 murder of Fredrick Gomes, a PT (physical training) teacher at La Martiniere College in Lucknow. Despite having committed the crime, the police failed to prove him guilty. Guddu was then part of the gang of Satyendra Singh, a history-sheeter from Faizabad who was killed in a gang war in 1996 along with another dreaded gangster Sriprakash Shukla,” said Pandey.
Read this also | Time’s ‘UP’: ‘Bullets and Bulldozers’ for Mafias in Yogi Sarkar Raj After Umesh Pal Shootout
Guddu lived in Lucknow in OCR building in Hussainganj area before shifting to Gorakhpur, where he met Parvez Tada, another Gorakhpur mafia, for whom he used to make crude bombs.
moved to bihar
However, after Sriprakash Shukla’s encounter in 1998, police said, Guddu moved to Bihar and joined hands with Bihar-based don Udaybhan and frequently visited UP to commit crimes. In 2001, the UP police arrested him in Patna, but he got bail. He then joined the camp of Atiq Ahmed, Guddu was also chargesheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the murder of Raju Pal in 2019.
Absconding, Rs 5 lakh for information
Guddu Muslim and others who attacked Umesh Pal are still absconding. UP Police claims to have scanned around 10,000 phone calls. On the condition of anonymity, a senior police officer said that the police is searching.
Along with this, the reward amount on Guddu Muslim, Mohammad Asad (son of Atiq), Armaan, Ghulam and Sabir has been increased to Rs 5 lakh each. This is probably the first time in a decade that such a huge reward has been announced for the absconding criminals.
read all latest india news Here