Lucknow: The three killers of Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf have used the highly sophisticated Zigana pistols. The Zigana pistol manufactured in Turkey is a semi-automatic firearm produced by the Turkish weapons manufacturing company TISAS.
The lethal pistols have a magazine capacity of up to 15 bullets which enabled the killers to keep pumping bullets into their victims. The Turkish pistols which have a locked-slide short recoil operating mechanism with a modified browning-type locking system are currently banned in India. These pistols come at a steep price of Rs 6 to Rs 7 lakhs per unit.
The production of these pistols started in 2001 and it is one of the first pistols manufactured in Tukey with an original design. The use of pistols by the killers of Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf has raised questions as to how they got hold of such foreign-made pistols which are banned in India.
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Official sources said that the police is suspecting that the pistols were provided to the three shooters by some other people in the conspiracy. However, the police are yet to make any official statement on the issue. They further revealed that during interrogation the three shooters have told police that killed Atiq and his brother to make a name for themselves.
"All of a sudden two of the journalists dropped their camera and mic and started firing at Atiq and Ashraf . Suddenly, the third journalist also started firing and till someone could react, the criminals in garb of media, killed Atiq and Ashraf. Policeman Mann Singh suffered injuries and one of the attackers was injured in cross firing," stated the FIR.
