Ward councillor shot in Siwan district

PATNA: A 40-year-old ward councillor was shot dead by unknown armed assailants at Jalalpur village under Hasanpura police station area in Siwan district on Saturday midnight. The deceased was identified as Naeem Ashraf, son of Maqbool Ahmed, who won the election from ward no.17 of Hasanpura Nagar Panchayat in December last year.
Siwan SP Shailesh Kumar Sinha said the incident took place when the councillor was returning home after attending a wedding ceremony organised at Dr Bhola Gupta's house located at Hasanpura Bazaar.
"Unidentified criminals ambushed him near a mosque, about 200 meters away from his house, and fired at him. Ashraf got hit by one bullet in his chest and another in his stomach. However, miscreants managed to escape from the spot," he said on Sunday.Hearing the gunshot, the locals gathered at the spot and immediately rushed the deceased to the Sadar hospital, but he was declared brought dead. The police said the body has been handed over to the relatives after the post-mortem.
Meanwhile, enraged over the murder, the locals went on rampage on Sunday morning. They blocked the road and burned tires while raising slogans against the district administration and the police, disrupting traffic movement for several hours. Sadar SDPO Ashok Azad along with team of Nagar police station and Hasanpura police station reached the spot and pacified the protesting people.
The SP said the cause of the incident was said to be an old land dispute. "After registering a case in connection with this incident and the police team has started probing the murder.
Raids are being conducted to identify the involved criminals and arrest them. At present the law and order situation is under control in the area," Sinha said.
Masoom, one of the relatives of the deceased, told the police that after attending the programme, Ashraf dropped him at his home, and he went to his home on foot. "Ashraf had no enmity with anyone," he added.