Raipur, September 26
A BJP MP's son was today gunned down and his brother injured when Naxals opened fire at them at their ancestral village in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh where the two siblings had gone to celebrate Durga Puja.

While Tansen, son of BJP MP and tribal leader Baliram Kashyap, succumbed to his head injuries in the attack in Pairaguda village, his bother Dinesh was wounded in the shoulder and was undergoing treatment in Maharani Hospital in Jagdalpur, Inspector General R K Vij said.

The two brothers had gone to their ancestral village for Durga Puja celebrations when they were attacked by four cycle-borne assailants, who managed to escape.

It is suspected that the attack was carried out by the quick action group of the Naxals, Vij said, adding that a manhunt had been launched to nab the assailants.

Tansen was Chairman of the Bhanpuri block panchayat, while Dinesh is the chief of District Cooperative Bank.

The incident came a day after Union Home Minister P Chidambaram visited Raipur to review the Naxal problem and had said that the Centre would provide all possible help to the Chattisgarh government in its efforts to eradicate left-wing extremism completely.

In Delhi, BJP president Rajnath Singh condoled the death of Kashyap’s son. He also paid tributes to several security personnel who died in recent Naxal attacks in Chhattisgarh and demanded that the Centre should give more resources to the states to fight the menace. — PTI