Tension prevailed in a Gorakhpur village after the woman gram pradhan of Raghunathpur was chased and shot at by unidentified miscreants on Sunday night.
The victim, Durgawati Devi, was admitted to a hospital in a critical condition.
A heavy deployment of police has been made in the village where tension prevails.
Reports said that Durgawati Devi, the gram pradhan of Raghunathpur in Harpur-Budhat police station area of Gorakhpur, was sitting at the door of her house on Sunday night when suddenly four assailants riding two motorcycles came and opened indiscriminate fire on her.
Durgawati tried to run away to save her life but the assailants chased her and kept firing at her, injuring the gram pradhan critically. Taking her as dead, the assailants fired a few more rounds in the air to terrorise the villagers and escaped.
The family members, who rushed out immediately, took Durgawati to the primary health centre from where she was referred to BRD Medical College hospital because of her critical condition.
Durgawati Devi’s husband. Rampal Gupta, who is block pramukh of Sahjanwa block, claimed that the assailants also opened fire at him but as they ran behind his wife he managed to take shelter.
After getting information about the incident, Gorakhpur DIG Range J Ravindra Gaur and SSP Dr Gaurav Grover rushed to the village with a heavy police force. The villagers told the police that all the assailants had covered their faces with masks.
Police registered a case and were waiting for Durgawati to recover to take her statement and also find out whether she had enmity with someone which could result in the attempt on her life.
Police officials said that raids were being carried out at several places to arrest the suspects.
A heavy police force has been deployed in the area to avert any untoward incident.
Meanwhile, in a shocking incident, the severed head of a man was found stuck in the engine of the superfast Gatimaan Express when it arrived in Jhansi, police said on Sunday.
According to reports, when train number 12050 Gatimaan Express, the country's first semi-high-speed train, arrived at Virangana Laxmibai railway station, someone noticed a severed head of a man stuck in the cattle catcher of the engine and raised an alarm.
It is presumed that the head may be of the headless body of a man run over by a train near Tughlakabad railway station.
Senior railway officials along with Government Railway Police (GRP) and Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel rushed to the spot on being informed about the incident and took the severed head in their custody.
Meanwhile, the driver of the train who had taken charge at Agra said that he had no idea how the severed head got entangled in the cattle catcher of the train's engine.
GRP Station House Officer Pankaj Pandey, who made a detailed investigation, said that the entire route starting from Nizamuddin station was checked using CCTV footage at Agra and Gwalior railway stations.
It came to light that a headless body was found on the tracks near Tughlakabad station. It is being presumed that the head may be of the same person.
"We will be conducting an independent post-mortem of the head and then the reports will be shared with the Faridabad GRP which will further reveal the facts," the GRP SHO said.
In another incident, a 45-year-old farmer allegedly committed suicide in Gauriganj area of Amethi district, police said on Monday.
Ramu Pasi (45) on Sunday night hanged himself from a tree using a gamchha (scarf), Station House Officer (Gauriganj) Angad Singh said.
The reason for the extreme step could not be ascertained yet. The body was sent for autopsy.