Burdwan: A local panchayat vice-chairman was shot dead today by a group of unidentified assailants triggering violence in the Ketugram area of the district, the police said.

Badshah Sheikh (35), the vice-chairman of Berugram gram panchayat was abducted by some bike-borne miscreants when he stepped out of his house this evening and was then shot dead in a secluded spot close by, they said.

Local residents of Ketugram and Berugram have said the murder was a fall out of rivalry between a group owing allegiance to Ketugram Trinamool Congress MLA Sheikh Sahanawez and the party's Birbhum district president Anubrata Mandal.