KATHMANDU: The murder of a local strongman, alleged to have mafia links and backed by the royal regime, triggered raging riots in southern Nepal on Sunday, with two more people feared killed and dozens of houses, hotels and vehicles attacked by mobs.

Mohit Khan, who had run a vigilante group during Gyanendra’s government in Kapilavastu district, where 12 Maoists were killed in the second month of the Gyanendra’s takeover but was never prosecuted despite campaigns by rights groups, met his nemesis at a market square in the morning when two men riding a motorcycle gunned him down.

Khan was also the father-in-law of controversial minister Mirza Dilshad Beg, who belonged to the royalist Rastriya Prajatantra Party, and was said to have links with the ISI and Dawood Ibrahim, and was also shot dead in the capital in 1998 with his driver.

Despite his unsavoury reputation, Khan had a strong base in the area and earlier this year, the Maoists had called a week-long strike in Kapilavastu, demanding the pullout of the army from its base in Khan’s brother’s house.

As news of the murder spread, Khan’s supporters began rioting, attacking suspected Maoist sympathisers, houses, hotels and passing vehicles. A policeman was also killed by the protesters. There were reports, not immediately confirmed by the government, that a third man was also killed in the violence.