RSS leader shot dead in Ludhiana; Rajnath raises issue with Amarinder

Unidentified assailants shot dead Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Ravinder Gosai on Tuesday in Punjab's Ludhiana city as he was returning from a RSS 'shaka'. The Punjab Police have not made any arrests so far.

Gosai, 58, was near his house when he was attacked. He was the Sangh Pracharak (regional missionary) at the RSS Mohan shakha in Ludhiana.

Eyewitnesses told police that Gosai was shot from close range by two motorcycle-borne assailants in Kailash Nagar area. He was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

CCTV footage of nearby areas showed that the two assailants, wearing turbans with their faces covered, were moving in the locality since morning.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who was at the Hussainiwala border in Punjab's Ferozepur district on Tuesday, raised the issue with Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.

Amarinder Singh said the police was working on some leads and would nab the culprits soon.

BJP and RSS leaders in Punjab condemned the incident and pointed out that law and order situation in Punjab had deteriorated under the present Congress government. Tuesday's killing is the fifth of a right-wing leader in Punjab in the last three years.

The Punjab Police have failed to nab those behind most of the killings.

Senior Punjab RSS leader Brigadier Jagdish Gagneja (retd) was shot by unidentified motor-cycle borne youths in a busy area of Jalandhar city on August 6, 2016. Gagneja was critically injured and succumbed to his injuries a month later. His assailants continue to be at large.

Leaders of Hindu organizations have been attacked and killed in some other incidents in Gurdaspur and Khanna towns earlier.

Shiv Sena leader Durga Prasad Gupta was gunned down in Punjab's Khanna town, 75 km from here, in April 2016.

Shiv Sena leader Harinder Soni was shot at by unidentified assailants while he was on a walk in a secured area of Gurdaspur town in north Punjab in April 2015.

In two separate incidents, unidentified persons fired shots at RSS activists in Ludhiana city in January and February last year.

--IANS

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