In a sensational broad daylight killing, a furniture businessman was shot dead by unknown motorcycle-borne assailants in Pratapgarh district on Thursday.
Police said that the incident took place in Patti Kotwali area, 30 kilometres from the district headquarters.
In-charge of Patti Kotwali police station, Alok Kumar, said that when Mohammad Naeem (50) of Patti town was going to drop his child to school on a motorcycle on Thursday noon, three people on a motorcycle stopped him. Before Naeem could sense danger, the two riding pillion whipped out pistols and opened indiscriminate fire following which Naeem collapsed in a pool of blood.
Luckily, Naeem’s son remained unhurt as the assailants opened fire from a close range.
Alok Kumar said that after committing the murder, the motorcycle riders fled the scene of crime.
After receiving information, the police reached the spot and took the businessman to a local hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.
Kumar said that the assailants had not been identified yet. He said the motive behind the murder was also not clear as the family members had no information about any enmity or threat to life of Naeem from anyone.
The body was sent for post-mortem and the case is being investigated.
Meanwhile, a gate, installed at the boundary wall of a farm house in Firozabad suddenly fell while children were playing on it. While one child died, two others were seriously injured.
The incident took place in Nagau village in Tundla Kotwali area on Thursday morning.
According to reports, Vinod Kumar, a resident of the village, has built a boundary wall on the farm house and installed a gate. While playing on Thursday morning, some children of the village were swinging on the gate when its pillar suddenly fell and the children were trapped under the gate.
By the time the villagers reached the spot to rescue the children, 8-year-old Golu had died on the spot.
Three other children were injured and they were admitted to the local community health centre.
Reports said Golu was the son of Virendra Singh, originally a resident of Shikohabad. Virendra lives in Gandhinagar, Gujarat and works there. A few days ago, Golu and his elder sister Himanshi (13) were brought to their home by their aunt Sunita Devi. Golu was the youngest of three siblings. His younger sister Divya is living with her parents.