GHAZIPUR: Shops remained closed on Friday in Mohammadabad Yusufpur township in Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh, the native place of gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari who died of a cardiac arrest a day before.Ansari’s body will be brought to his native place for the last rites during the day.A large number of security personnel have been deployed in the area to maintain law and order.People were seen waiting for the arrival of body of the five-time MLA, who was rushed to a hospital from the Banda jail on Thursday after his health condition deteriorated.Ansari died at the hospital during treatment.A grave has been dug at the Ansari family’s burial ground in Kali Bagh for the last rites, Circle Officer (CO) Atar Singh and Pawan Kumar Upadhyaya, an inspector attached to the Mohammadabad police station, said.They said Ansari’s family members have informed them that the last rites will be performed on Friday if the body reaches here by 10 pm.Otherwise, the last rites would be performed on Saturday morning.Ansari’s post-mortem is being conducted in Banda, which is about 400 km from here.The convoy carrying his body would pass through Fatehpur, Kaushambi, Prayagraj and Varanasi districts, before arriving in Ghazipur.Ansari’s lawyer Naseem Haider said the body is likely to reach Ghazipur late at night.Ansari’s son Umar wrote a letter to the Banda district magistrate, alleging that his father was killed in a planned manner and demanding that the post-mortem be performed at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi.”We have no faith of getting justice from the administration and doctors’ team of Banda,” Umar Ansari wrote in the letter.Ansari’s political rivals have, however, reacted sharply to his death, saying “as you sow, so shall you reap” and that justice has been delivered.People started gathering at Ansari’s residence in Mohammadabad Yusufpur since the morning.Gulab Ram, the former Ghazipur unit chief of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), told PTI Videos that “people are heartbroken”.”Shops are closed.He (Ansari) used to be with people in their happiness and sorrow,” Ram said.The councillor of ward number 25, Lohatia Sanjeev Kumar Gihar, told reporters that “the market is closed not because of anyone’s advice but due to our sympathies with the Ansari family”.
Source link
