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Atiq Ahmad, an Apna Dal MLA whom Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati accused of plotting to kill her, was injured in a bomb attack on Wednesday noon when he was being produced at a district court in Allahabad.
A mafia don, Atiq Ahmed has been in detention under the National Security Act since his arrest on June 6. he represents Allahabad (West) constituency in the state assembly.
Police promptly arrested the assailant while his accomplice escaped, sources said.
According to the zonal Inspector General of Police O P Dikshit, "Atiq was rushed to the Swaroop Rani hospital and is out of danger."
The attack on Atiq on Wednesday sparked off much commotion and violence in Allahabad. His supporters took to the streets in large numbers, pelting stones at a police station and burning effigies of Chief Minister Mayawati.
Irate crowds raised anti-Mayawati slogans blaming her for the attack on Atiq, who has, of late, begun to acquire a Robin Hood-type of image among his constituents.
Atiq Ahmed was a sitting MLA from Allahabad when he switched loyalties from the Samajwadi Party to the Apna Dal, a regional outfit.
However, there is talk of Atiq re-establishing links with the SP, whose state general secretary and younger brother of party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, Shiv Pal Singh Yadav, went all the way to Naini jail (in Allahabad) to meet him.
On August 3, Mayawati announced at a press conference that some of her political rivals had hatched a conspiracy to kill her naming Atiq Ahmed and Brijesh Singh, another mafia don from Eastern UP and the brother of a BJP legislator, as the key suspects.
Reacting sharply, Atiq had on August 4 charged Mayawati of plotting to get him eliminated.
PTI adds SSP Vijay Kumar told PTI that the assailant had confessed to the crime saying he wanted to avenge the killing of his brother, who was shot dead in the court premises in 1995, allegedly by Ahmad's men, Vijay Kumar said.
Soon after the incident, the area was cordoned off and additional police personnel deployed as a precautionary measure.
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