A Trinamul Congress member of Kurunnurun gram panchayat in Murshidabad district was murdered on Friday morning when he was on his way home from a market.

Mostafa Sheikh, 46, was reportedly attacked with crude bombs and then bullets by the side of a paddy field around 9am after being stopped by four unidentified persons at Hastinapur .

Trinamul workers have termed the murder an act of political vendetta, while the BJP blamed rivalry within Trinamul for the crime.

Sources said Mostafa was an ardent Trinamul worker and “galvanised” local youth, which may have made him a target if the act was political in nature. However, local sources denied knowledge of any such rifts.

Eyewitnesses rushed him to the Burwan block hospital, 10km away, but doctors pronounced him dead. Sources said his assailants walked off on foot after committing the crime. “We were at some distance, so we couldn’t hear what was going on, but we saw clearly that he was killed in cold blood,” said a resident of Hastinapur.

“Mostafa was a great organiser, so the BJP has decided to silence him. This is another sign of their reign of terror in our district which commenced after they lost their assembly seat here,” said Trinamul Burwan MLA Jiban Krishna Saha.

BJP district president Gourishankar Ghosh said: “The BJP is not involved. This is Trinamul’s internal strife.”

District superintendent of police, K. Sabari Rajkumar, said a murder case and an investigation had been started in this connection.

"We have already arrested two persons and are looking for the other two," he said.