Unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants shot dead Nanakmatta Gurudwara Sahib chief Baba Tarsem Singh in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand on Thursday.

Manjunath TC, senior superintendent of police of the district, said that Singh, 60, was sitting on a chair at the dera near the main gate at 6.15am when one of the two killers, who was riding pillion, fired on him from a rifle.

“There were two killers on a motorcycle. One of them fired two bullets at Singh before fleeing. Singh was declared dead on arrival at a hospital in Khatima. We have found some CCTV footage and are trying to identify the killers,” he said.

Yashpal Arya, leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, said: “It reflects the deplorable law and order situation in Uttarakhand. Who is safe in the state if the head of the revered Nanakmatta Gurudwara Sahib is killed? It is the golden period for criminals in the hill state.”

Police sources said they had recovered the identity cards of the killers from the guest house of the gurudwara where they had been staying since March 19.“As per their identity and health cards, they belong to Punjab,” said a police officer who didn’t want to be named.

“The assailants are definitely professional killers. They stayed here for nine
days and watched the activities in the gurudwara and the habits of Singh. They knew when he would wake up and sit there on a chair in the morning. They had kept a sophisticated rifle with themselves but nobody noticed it before,” he added.

Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said a probe had been started.