Unidentified assailants shot dead All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Abdul Salam in Bihar’s Gopalganj district late on Monday. Salam is the second AIMIM leader to be killed in Bihar since December.

Salam, who unsuccessfully contested the by-poll to the Gopalganj assembly seat in November 2022, was on his way to catch a train when four assailants on two motorcycles fired on him as he was riding a pillion with a relative. Police said that Salam was rushed to a hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

Gopalganj police superintendent Swarn Prabhat said they have set up a Special Investigation Team and were trying to find out the motive behind the murder.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi slammed Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar over the law and order situation in the state. “Last year, in December, our Siwan district president Arif Jamal was shot dead. Nitish Kumar, after you are done with saving the chair competition, do some work. Why are only our leaders the target? Will their families get justice?” Owaisi wrote on X on Monday night.

AIMIM’s Bihar spokesperson Adil Hasan Azad called Salam a non-controversial and upright leader making his mark politically. “We want the police to investigate the matter thoroughly.”