Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday hinted that the Begusarai firing in which two motorcycle-borne assailants killed one person and injured 10 could be a conspiracy against him in the aftermath of the change of government in the state.

Nitish summoned director-general of police S.K. Singhal to his official residence and discussed the incident for close to an hour before talking to media persons.

“I had previously alerted the people. There have not been many such incidents in the state. But somebody has done this deliberately. Its meaning is clear. We will have to be more alert and look into it,” Nitish said.

“It will not be proper to blame anybody at this juncture, but we are looking into every aspect of the incident. We are considering all angles, including why and how it happened. One person has been killed in it,” he added.

Nitish asserted that the government would also look into why the police officers who were supposed to work promptly did not do so. “Some police personnel have been suspended. We are looking into the lack of steps by the police. The people have to move on the roads and a vigil has to be maintained always,” he said.

Nitish’s comments came against the backdrop of the Opposition BJP protesting the firing incident in Begusarai. Union minister for rural development and panchayati raj, Giriraj Singh, and his supporters staged a sit-in on the National Highway-28, disrupting the flow of traffic on it for several hours.Giriraj also took part in the funeral procession of Chandan Kumar, who died in the firing incident and later went to meet the injured in the hospital.

Other senior BJP leaders, including the leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Vijay Kumar Sinha, also converged at Begusarai to register their protest.Nitish had quit the NDA last month and joined hands with the Grand Alliance to form a new government. The BJP has been overactive in criticising him and the new ruling dispensation in the state.The Bihar police were yet to identify or nab the two motorcycle-borne shooters 24 hours after they struck terror by shooting indiscriminately in Begusarai district, killing one person and injuring 10.

The incident has put a big question mark on the police’s preparedness, ability, communication, routine patrolling, dutifulness, and standard operating procedures for tackling such brazen crimes. However, the police have detained five persons in Begusarai and are interrogating them.

A manhunt is going on in several districts to identify and arrest the culprits and the police are relying on the footage from various public and private CCTV cameras along the route taken by the two attackers.

Briefing media persons about the incident, additional director general (ADG) (police headquarters) Jitendra Singh Gangwar said on Wednesday: “So far we know that the accused were on a motorcycle and they fired without any specific target or to kill any particular person. There was no motive for robbery either.”“We have suspended seven police officials of the patrolling parties after the incident because they did not do their duty proactively to check the vehicles. The miscreants could have been arrested had they done so. We are conducting further investigations in this aspect,” Gangwar said.The ADG added that an FIR has been registered and proper medical treatment for the injured was provided.