Dhubri/Guwahati, Oct. 21: A gaon panchayat president belonging to the All India United Democratic Front was gunned down this morning in Assam’s Barpeta district, weeks ahead of the November 7 bypolls in the state where the party is a key player.
Muzaffar Ali, the president of Sikni gaon panchayat, was pillion riding on a motorcycle from his Sahurchara Bazaar residence to Kalgachia, a distance of 10km, when four assailants waiting for him at Bamuntary, 3km from his house, fired at him from a revolver.
While his companion managed to escape, Ali, in his forties, died in the Barpeta Civil Hospital. The site of the incident is 35km from the district headquarters, which is 155km from Guwahati.
Three of the four assailants, who were on two bikes, fled but the villagers caught hold of one, identified as Abdul Kader. He would have been lynched but for the timely arrival of police.
Barpeta superintendent of police Devojyoti Mukherjee told this correspondent that Kader had been arrested and a revolver seized from him.
“The deceased was shot four times. The accused, in his thirties, is from a nearby village and is of dubious antecedents. Beyond that I cannot reveal anything as investigations are on,” he said when asked whether this was a “political murder”.
The AIUDF has called a 10-hour Barpeta district bandh from 6am to 4pm tomorrow, party state secretary Abdus Samad Ahmed said.
Party media secretary Haider Hussain Bora told this correspondent today, “We don’t know who is responsible for the death of Ali but it is a political conspiracy. Our president Badruddin Ajmal and working president HRA Choudhury have demanded that the government nab the accused and ensure the security of party members throughout the state as most of them have been receiving threats of late.”
Sikni panchayat is in Rushi block under Baghbor Assembly seat where the Congress has lost considerable ground to the AIUDF.
Kader is understood to have named the involvement of one Sattar in the crime. AIUDF sources alleged that Sattar was close to local Congress leader Badal Khan.
