A Bharatiya Janata Party worker was shot dead by unidentified assailants in a remote village in Naxal-affected Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki district of Chhattisgarh on Friday, police said. The incident took place at arounf 7:30 pm in Sarkheda village under Aundhi police station limits when the worker Birju Taram was out for a walk, said district Superintendent of Police Ratna Singh, according to a PTI report.
While it was not ascertained whether Naxals were involved in the act, Mohla-Manpur Additional Superintendent of Police Vivek Shukla did not rule out the possibility. "As per initial investigations, Naxal involvement cannot be denied. Evidence of firearms (used in the incident) point towards their involvement. We are probing other aspects as well," said the Additional SP.
Taram, who was in his early sixties, was accosted by two-three people who fired at him, leaving him dead on the spot, said district Superintendent of Police Ratna Singh quoting eyewitnesses.
The incident comes in the run-up to the Chhattisgarh Assembly polls with where Mohla-Manpur being among the twenty constituencies which will go to polls in the first phase on November 7.
Denouncing the act as a “targeted killing", State BJP president Arun Sao said that his party workers will not be scared by such incidents and they will oust the Congress from power.
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“The murder of BJP worker Birju Taram is yet another targeted killing of a BJP worker. BJP workers will not be scared of such an act and will not let the martyrdom go in vain, " Sao said in a video statement.
In June this year, a local BJP leader was killed by suspected Naxalites in Bijapur district while three local BJP workers were murdered in similar incidents in Bastar division—one in Bijapur and two in neighbouring Narayanpur district in February this year.