Ranchi, June 23: A 40-year-old mukhiya was battered with a rock and shot dead by unidentified persons in Khunti last night, the incident exposing the alarming law and order situation in a district that is barely 40km from the state capital and prompting fellow panchayat chiefs to threaten resignation en masse.

John Lugun, who headed Khatkura panchayat in Rania block, 65km from the district headquarters, was apparently called out of his house by some fellow villagers around 10.30pm at the behest of armed assailants. As soon as Lugun stepped out of home, he was ambushed, his head was smashed and body riddled with bullets.

Khunti SP Ashwini Kumar Sinha said Khatkura was 35km from Rania block headquarters and police were informed about the killing this morning. "We suspect the role of PLFI, but nothing can be said for certain unless proper investigations are carried out. The probe is on," he added.

Rania thana OC Vinod Ram echoed the SP, saying poor mobile network had delayed information. "The body has been taken into custody and sent for post-mortem. We are hunting for clues," he said.

Sources in Khunti said Lugun was the elder brother of a Jharkhand Police constable posted in Jamshedpur. The mukhiya had married two years ago and is survived by his wife and a year-old daughter, besides elderly parents.

The district has 86 panchayats and all the mukhiyas turned up at Khunti Sadar Hospital, where autopsy was scheduled, in an unprecedented show of solidarity that underscored Lugun's popularity among colleagues.

Speaking to this newspaper over phone, mukhiya Roshan Kundulna of Dahu panchayat said they would meet deputy commissioner Manish Ranjan tomorrow morning to apprise him of their plan to step down from their posts if the men who killed Lugun were not arrested and the security machinery in Khunti was not oiled.

"If our demands are not met on a priority basis, we shall tender mass resignation. There is no point being mukhiyas for a government that doesn't value our lives," Kundulna said.