FAIZABAD: Communal tension gripped Tanda town of Ambedkarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday night after a local VHP leader was shot dead by unidentified gunmen. Keeping in view the simmering tension over the murder, a heavy contingent of security forces including PAC jawans was deployed in the town.

According to official sources, three unidentified gunmen came to the chemist shop of the VHP leader Ram Mohan Gupta in Tanda town and fired three bullets from point blank range. Locals immediately took Gupta to the district hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival.

After the killing, activists of VHP and Hindu Yuva Vahini blocked traffic on Tanda-Akbarpur road. The activists raised anti-government and inflammatory slogans, locals said.

In March this year, Ram Mohan Gupta's uncle, Ram Babu Gupta — also a VHP leader — was killed in a similar fashion. After the killing, sporadic communal clashes were reported from some villages in Tanda, forcing the administration to keep the areas under curfew for over a week.