Masked miscreants brandished guns and picked up an independent chairman candidate of the Union Parishad polls from his house before killing him in Bandarban’s Ruma upazila early today.

The deceased was identified as Santi Priyo Tripura, 40, a local of the upailza, our Bandarban correspondent reports. He was supposed to collect his nomination today.

A group of five or six masked men broke into the house, located in Ramdupara Union, around 3:30am, the deceased’s brother in-law Jogesh Tripura told The Daily Star.

“They brandished guns and fired blank shots to scare away the locals. They took him away and killed him in a jungle 10-15 minutes away from the house,” he said.

Ruma Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Md Shariful Islam said he heard of the incident. “We have sent our force there.” He could not tell of any motive behind the murder.

The family blamed one Tripura Group over the incident. “Santi had a long standing enmity with the group,” claimed Jogesh.

Ramdupara Union will enter elections in the third phase of the Union Parishad polls on April 23. This is the first time the root level elections will be held in partisan manner.