Gunmen came on a motorcycle and shot dead a Trinamul Congress panchayat pradhan in West Bengal’s Uttar Dinajpur district on Wednesday, a police official said.

Mohammed Rahi was fired upon by the assailants on NH-31 as he came out of the Panjipara panchayat office. The gunmen then managed to flee.

Rahi was first taken to Kishanganj Medical College and Hospital in neighbouring Bihar and later shifted to a private healthcare centre in Siliguri in the northern part of West Bengal. He died there during treatment.

It appears that the victim had a dispute with a group of people in the area over setting up a market complex, the police officer said.

“We are probing the incident from all angles,” he said.

TMC activists blocked the arterial highway, connecting the northern and southern parts of the state for some time in protest against the killing.

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