Opposition leaders criticised the Bihar government led by Nitish Kumar after a leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader was shot dead in Kalyanpur area of Samastipur district in Bihar on Thursday morning.

Raghuvar Rai, the party’s state general secretary, was killed while he was taking a morning walk, the police said. He was attacked by two gunmen on a motorcycle, Superintendent of Police Harpreet Kaur was quoted as saying by PTI. Their identities and the registration number of the two-wheeler are yet to be ascertained.

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The Twitter account of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is in jail after being convicted for corruption, criticised Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the attack. “He feels no shame, keeps saying there is rule of law,” said a message. “People are being killed like insects in Bihar and he goes on playing the same record.” Yadav’s Twitter handle is managed by his office and family members.

Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son, Tejashwi Yadav, who is the leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, asked Kumar to control the “goons who enjoy state patronage”.

“What is the use of your keeping the Home Ministry portfolio?” he tweeted. “Criminals have been killing workers of Rashtriya Janata Dal and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party but till date you have kept silent.”

Rashtriya Lok Samta Party chief Upendra Kushwaha, who resigned from the National Democratic Alliance last month, claimed that the Nitish Kumar-led government had become “deaf, dumb and mute”.

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“The ‘double-engine’ government of Kumar has become callous,” Kushwaha claimed, in a jibe at the Janata Dal (United)’s alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

To protest the murder, Rashtriya Janata Dal supporters and villagers blocked road traffic between Darbhanga and Samastipur districts, The Indian Express reported. They demanded that the assailants be arrested immediately.