NEW DELHI, India UPI) -- Unidentified gunmen assassinated a senior politician of the ruling Congress (I) Party in northern India today, the Press Trust of India reported.
An undisclosed number of gunmen fired seteral bullets at Neta Hakimuddin as he was riding a rickshaw in the city of Meerut, about 35 miles northeast of New Delhi, the domestic news agency said.
Hakimuddin, president of the Congress (I) Party in Meerut, died instantly from bullet wounds in the head, the Press Trust said, quoting local police chief Nathu Lal. The gunmen escaped.
It was not immediately known if Hakimmudin's killers were Sikhs. Sikh gunmen are held responsible for the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who had led the Congress (I) Party.
Sikh militants, fighting for the independence of India's northern Punjab state, also are believed responsible for several recent political assassinations.
On May 10, two Sikh gunmen killed Balbir Chaudhary, a leading opposition politician in Sikh-dominated Punjab.
Eight days earlier two Sikhs killed Bhisham Parkash, a district Congress Party president in Punjab.
Sikh extremists have assassinated more than 90 people since July 1984, many of them politicians, official figures show.
