Ex-Shooter Of Mukhtar Ansari Gang Shot Dead In UP's Barabanki, Over 15 Bullets Fired

Barabanki: A former shooter linked to the deceased gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari was shot dead in Uttar Pradesh’s Barabanki district on Friday, police said. The incident took place near the Asaini mod along the Lucknow-Ayodhya highway.

Shoaib, alias Bobby, was known for being a shooter connected to the Ansari gang. He was reportedly travelling from Barabanki to Lucknow when he was shot. According to sources, around 15 rounds were fired at his Blue Baleno car in an attack that lasted several minutes.

Witnesses told the police that repeated gunshots were fired in broad daylight, triggering panic in the locality. Police also said that the scale of firing suggests that there were more than one attacker. The killers seem to have fled the scene soon after. According to reports, Shoiab's body was then found laced with bullets, at the driver's seat of the vehicle.

Shoaib, a resident of the Kotwali area in Barabanki, had been identified by police in the past as a shooter associated with Mukhtar Ansari’s criminal network. He was also an accused in the 1999 murder of Lucknow jailer R.K. Tiwari and had several other cases registered against him.

Senior police officials reached the spot promptly. The body has been sent for postmortem examination, and forensic teams have collected evidence from the site, they said. CCTV footage from nearby areas is also being examined. Police said they are investigating all possible motives for the murder, including past rivalries and gang-related enmity. Security has been heightened in the vicinity after the incident.

Mukhtar Ansari, a five-time MLA from eastern Uttar Pradesh who faced multiple criminal cases ranging from murder to extortion, died of cardiac arrest in March 2024 while he was in jail in Banda.

Further investigation into Shoaib’s killing remains underway. 

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