Two incidents of violence in the forenoon rocked Hazaribagh town and created panic among the public on Wednesday.
In the first incident, unidentified criminals sprayed bullets from automatic guns on lakhan Sao, husband of District Board chairperson Sushila Devi. Sao and his bodyguard Dharmendra Singh were seriously injured in the shooting and have been sent to Ranchi for treatment.
Police said that Sao alongwith his bodyguard was on way to his native place Barkagaon through Sardar Chowk in his Scorpio vehicle. When he saw a crowd near Sardar Chowk he took a U-turn. In the meantime, the assailants who were following him in a Bolero and a bike reached there and started firing on both using automatic machine guns.
According to eye witnesses, six miscreants were following Sao, five of them immediately escaped on the Bolero and bike and one having the carbine in hand tried to escape on foot. As the crowd followed him he entered the building of Bara Bazar Primary School. Taking him to be a terrorist, the mob started pelting stones inside the school building but he escaped through the backside leaving his weapon and cartridges in the school.
Since the condition of lakhan Sao and Dharmendra Singh was serious, doctors referred them to Ranchi after preliminary treatment. They are admitted in Medica Hospital and their condition is said to be critical.
Notably, lakhan Sao is said to be a member of the gang of Sushil Srivastava, who was shot dead by rival Bhola Pandey group about two years ago in the civil court premises. The residents are linking this incident with the old rivalry of the two gangs active in the colliery areas of old Hazaribagh district.
In the other incident that also took place in the midst of the town near Sardar chowk, some miscreants pelted stones on Bajrang Dal volunteers who were going to attend their training classes in a bus. The training classes have been going on here for the last few days.
However, the district administration controlled the situation immediately and imposed Section 144 in the entire town area.
Hazaribagh MP and Union Minister Jayant Sinha, who was here today also reached the spot and appealed to everyone to maintain peace and harmony in the town.
It is not clear as to whether the incident of stone-pelting on Bajrang Dal volunteers took place before the incident of shooting or after. In the stone-pelting many Dal volunteers were injured and they have been admitted to Sadar Hospital here.