A daylong bandh called by the BJP in protest against the murder of a petrol pump manager in Bhagalpur on Tuesday has crippled normality in the town.

Barely 24 hours before the chief minister was to attend the first convocation of Bihar Agricultural University (BAU), Sabour, on Tuesday evening, unidentified gunmen on two motorcycles shot Jaikishan Sharma (56) from close range in a high security zone on Goshala Road.

Jaikishan, the husband of senior BJP leader Kushum Sharma, was walking back to his Goshala Road residence from Jain Petrol Pump on Tatarpur Road. The assailants shot him dead near his house around 8.30pm.

The place of occurrence is in the heart of the town and hardly 50m away from Kotwali police station and the resident of Bhagalpur municipal corporation mayor.

Following the murder, the killers fled on two motorcycles, said a witness on condition of anonymity.

Bhagalpur senior superintendent of police Rajesh Kumar said: “They managed to escape with Jaikishan’s bag, which contained an empty tiffin-box and nearly Rs 20,000 in cash. It is not a simple case of robbery. We suspect some old rivalry or land dispute behind it.”

Former minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey, who led party workers for enforcing the bandh here on Tuesday, took on the state government for failing to tackle crime. “Rise in crime incidents not only in Bhagalpur but also for the entire state is a matter of concern,” he alleged.