Delhi's gangster who directs bloodshed from behind bars

The rise of Hashim Baba

- Karn Pratap Singh

In June 2018, two notorious gangs that operate in northeast Delhi—one led by Abdul Nasir and the other by Irfan alias Chhenu Pehalwan—held a meeting at a mosque to end their decades-long rivalry.

At the meeting—attended by relatives of both gang lords—the two groups reached a consensus: they would divide their areas of operation, and not interfere with each other's businesses, police told HT.

Skirmishes between the two gangs had led to the death of at least 17 people, but after June 2018, the bloodshed stopped, and police could sigh with relief.

But one consequence of the peace between the groups was that Nasir's lieutenant Ashim Ahmad—better known as Hashim Baba—split off and formed his own gang that continued hostilities with the Chhenu gang, emerging as one of the most notorious criminals in north India, according to a special cell police officer.

"What followed was a series of killings and attempted killings that Hashim Baba and his associates committed in east and south Delhi in a bid to establish Baba as the new undisputed king of Delhi's crime world," the officer said, declining to be named.

"The killings would have continued had a special cell team not arrested Baba after a shoot-out in Shahdara on November 12, 2020," the officer said.