Two policemen patrol Aligarh during the April communal riots. File picture

Lucknow, May 29: Aligarh has lapsed into clashes and curfew, just over a month after Ram Navami preparations sparked communal riots.

The violence erupted last night after .P. Gupta, a trader and BJP leader, was shot dead when he was returning home after shutting his shop in the sensitive Delhi Gate area of the old city. Two motorcycle-borne youths shot him in the left ear from close range.

Gupta was an accused in the April 5 riots in the city, which claimed seven persons.

Minutes after the 45-year-old trader died at JN Medical College, a mob killed two persons near Delhi Gate. The deceased were identified as Bablu and Azimuddin.

Twelve injured people were admitted to hospital in serious condition.

Curfew was clamped in five police station areas, including Sasni Gate, Kotwali and Delhi Gate. Examinations of Agra University scheduled to be held in Aligarh today and tomorrow were cancelled.

This morning, too, there were reports of stone pelting at police and their vehicles at Sasni Gate. Two persons ? a rickshawpuller, Santosh, and a small-time trader identified as Imran ? were shot at this afternoon and are admitted at JN Medical College.

Akhilesh Kumar, senior superintendent of police of Aligarh, said: “We have arrested four persons and interrogations are on. We are investigating all the angles of the riots.”

The murder last night is not the first of its kind in recent times. Two persons ? Raju, 22, and Kamal Gupta, 32 ? who died in shootings in the last two weeks had similar gunshot wounds in their ear.

“There appears to be some pattern in the killings. The assailants first asked the victims their names and then shot them from close range. There seems to be a deliberate move to prolong the communal tension that had died after April 7,” said Chandrakant Dixit, a CPM leader and an advocate in Aligarh.

Police sources said the latest killings appear to be a late backlash of the April 5 riots being whipped up by criminal elements from outside the city. Some officers hinted at the involvement of criminals loyal to Mukhtar Ansari, an Independent MLA accused in the Mau riots last October.

Ansari, now behind bars, is the legislator from Mau and is the prime accused in the murder of BJP leader Krishnanand Rai. The MLA is believed to have fallen out with Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav after the Mau riots. Sources feel he might be trying to settle political scores with Mulayam.

Speaking of the tension in Aligarh, commissioner of Agra range Ashoke Kumar said: “There has been no intelligence feedback on the growing unrest in the old city areas that revived the violence in Aligarh. We have asked for a special investigation cell to step up its information network.”

On April 5, clashes had broken out between two communities in the Dahiwali Gali area over decorations and installation of loudspeakers near a mosque for Ram Navami.