Patna: Khunti Yadav, a former mukhiya and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader was killed and his son injured in Buxar district on Friday night when they were returning home after closing their medical shop in the district headquarters town.

Protesters blocked the Buxar-Sasaram road and disrupted traffic since Saturday morning. The policemen were pelted with stones when they tried to bring the situation under control. The agitators demanded immediate arrest of the killers.

Khunti, 55, and his son Yashwant Yadav, 38, were in a sports utility vehicle when they were attacked near the Itarhi railway crossing by two men on a bike around 9.30pm. Father and son were returning home to Lalganj in the town, around 100km west of Patna, after closing their medical store in the Sarimpur locality.

Though Khunti had licensed rifles in the SUV, he did not get the opportunity to retaliate, said police. The assailants fired twice at Kunti from point-blank range to ensure he was dead. Yashwant was seriously injured too.

Both were rushed to the Buxar sadar hospital where the doctors declared Khunti, former mukhiya of Nadao Kunti, dead. Yashwant was referred to the Patna Medical College and Hospital but the family took him to a Varanasi hospital where his condition is stated to be critical.

As news of Khunti's death spread in the district headquarters town like wildfire, a number of his supporters reached the sadar hospital and shouted anti-police slogans.

Buxar sadar sub-divisional police officer Satish Kumar said Khunti had survived a murderous attack last year. "The district administration had provided him an arms licence last year after the attack," he told The Telegraph over phone from Buxar on Saturday.

The SDPO clarified that Yashwant was driving at the time of the attack and Khunti was sitting next to him. Eyewitnesses said the assailants asked Yashwant to open the windowpanes and then pumped two bullets into his father's body.

"By the time Yashwant could raise an alarm, the assailants had made their escape good. Prima facie it appears that the assailants were acquitted with Khunti. That is why he opened the windowpanes to talk to one of them," an investigating officer quoted an eyewitness as saying.

On Thursday night, Congress leader Loha Singh, a.k.a. Loha Mahto, was gunned down at his native village Hariharpur ward number 6 under the jurisdiction of Teghra police station in Begusarai district.

Personal enmity was stated to be the reason behind the incident. Loha's wife had also suffered injuries in the incident.