Amritsar, October 31: Vipin Sharma, district president of Hindu Sangharsh Sena, was on Monday shot dead in the city’s Bharat Nagar locality on the Amritsar-Batala road. He was talking to a friend when he was attacked.
The killing comes within a fortnight of the gunning down of RSS leader Ravinder Gosain in Ludhiana.
Sharma, a cable operator, was about to ride pillion to return home when two youths opened fire. He was rushed to a private hospital where doctors declared him dead. “There were about 15 injury marks on the deceased’s body, including eight bullet marks,” the hospital director said.
Sharma, a social worker, ran a society which organised langar for the needy.
A CCTV grab shows two youths, one of them sporting a turban, firing indiscriminately at Sharma. Police Commissioner SS Srivastava said the assailants’ two accomplices, who were also riding motorcycles, waited for them on the Batala road.
Sunny, who was to drop Sharma home on his bike, was shot in the foot. He fled, abandoning his vehicle. Another witness Raju too ran away as Sharma lay on the road with bullet injuries in the chest, stomach and head.
Srivastava, DCP (Investigations) Jagmohan Singh and DCP (Law and Order) Amrik Singh Power rushed to the site. Srivastava said: “It was a targeted killing. Though Sharma was not a prominent Hindu face, we do not rule out the involvement of a radical outfit. A few of the deceased’s relatives and friends claimed he had recently applied for police protection as he had raised his voice against the ‘Ghallughara’ week.”
With tension mounting in the city, the Police Commissioner held a meeting with several local leaders, urging them to maintain peace and assuring that the killers would be nabbed soon.
Arun Kumar Popa and Sahil Billa, both of Hindu Sangharsh Sena, and Sudhir Suri of the Shiv Sena (Punjab) have given a call for a bandh in the city on Tuesday.
News Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com
