A former area commander of the Ranvir Sena who was the prime accused in a 16-year-old massacre case was gunned down late on Tuesday night in Rohtas, prompting police to throw a security blanket on the area to prevent reprisal attacks.

Dhanji Singh, 40, the erstwhile strongman of the Ranvir Sena, a private militia of landowners, was attacked by gun-toting men at Durgapur village under the jurisdiction of Sasaram Mufassil police station in Rohtas when he was travelling in a sports utility vehicle late on Tuesday night.

His driver Shashi Pandey and his maternal uncle, Mantu Singh, were hit by bullets.

The three were rushed to a local government hospital where doctors declared them 'brought dead'. A motorbike was recovered from the attack site, around 12km from the district headquarters town of Sasaram.

Additional armed forces have been deployed in the region because of the tension prevailing after the killing of Dhanji and his associates. Dhanji was associated with the Ranvir Sena since 1994. The Sena is on the wane in the state.

The station house officer (SHO) of Sasaram Mufassil police station, Samrat Singh, said Dhanji had criminal antecedents and he was the prime accused in the Pachpokri massacre in which the Ranvir Sena killed four members of the Scheduled Caste in 2001. Eight persons, including Guddu Singh, a rival of Dhanji, have been made a named accused in the case.

The SHO said the FIR was lodged on the statement of the deceased gangster's wife Kiran Devi, who accused Guddu Singh, a resident of Chainpur village in Rohtas of hatching the conspiracy to eliminate her husband.

Police suspected war of supremacy and illegal sand mining behind the killing of Dhanji, whose name once spelt terror in Shahabad region. Apart from Guddu, seven others - Bablu Dubey, Chandan Yadav, Roshan Sharma, Abhishek Kumar, Anish Gupta, Chandan Gupta, all residents of Buxar and Amit Kumar of Siwan - have been made accused.

Sources said the assailants also took away AK-47s, self-loading rifles and carbines from Dhanji's vehicle. A few of the assailants were stated to be private bodyguards of Dhanji, who was in the sand mining business for over a decade. Over half a dozen people have been killed and several injured in the gangwar between Dhanji and Guddu in the past.

In August, the members of the rival groups had opened fire at Morangpur village. However, nobody was injured in the firing. Locals claimed that over 150 rounds were fired in the air to show their supremacy.

Dhanji's name had recently figured in the murder of Umesh Ram, a resident of Pachpokri. Dhanji's terror among the members of the Scheduled Castes could be gauged from the fact that nobody was ready to open their mouth against the ganglord.

Police said Dhanji was released on bail five months ago. He was earlier arrested on the charge of possessing illegal weapons. He was also facing charges of attacks on police.