Lucknow, Apr 20 (IANS): The three assailants, who shot dead gangster Atiq Ahmad and his brother Ashraf, were trained to behave like real journalists before they joined a group of media persons at the hospital where the brothers were shot dead.

Three men, who helped the main accused in the murder of gangster Atiq Ahmed and his brother, in pretending to be a reporter have been detained by the Special Investigation Team, the police said on Thursday.

Three men, who work for a local news website, showed the ropes of reporting to Tiwari and helped him buy a camera, the police said.

They have been detained from the railway station in Banda by the Special Investigation Team probing the case.

The killers, Lovelesh Tiwari, Arun Maurya and Sunny Singh, had trailed the arrested gangster as journalists for an entire day before shooting him in front of television cameras and dozens of policemen on April 15, said the police.

Meanwhile, search for Shaista Parveen continued on Thursday also. "Raids were conducted in search of Shaista Parveen, wife of gangster Atiq Ahmed. A search operation was conducted after receiving information about some criminals hiding. The operation lasted for about two hours. A drone camera was also used in the operation. However, the operation did not prove successful today," senior police officer Samar Bahadur said.

Atiq Ahmed was accused in the murder of BSP MLA Raju Pal in 2005, as well as in the killing of Umesh Pal, a key witness in the BSP leader's murder, in February this year.