Patna: A prominent Muslim religious leader Maulana Abdul Gani Zafri has been killed by unidentified miscreants in old Patna city area, police said on November 26.

Three armed miscreants entered the 70-year-old Maulana's house in Nooranibagh colony on November 25 after he returned from an 'iftar party'. They held his wife captive at pistol point and locked her in a room.

Later, the criminals slit the Maulana's throat with a sharp-edged weapon and fled from the spot, the police said.

A woman, who raised an alarm, was assaulted by the miscreants. She was admitted to the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), the police said.

Police forces in strength have been deployed in the entire old Patna city area in view of the tension gripping the locality in the wake of the killing.

As the news spread, a mob came out on the streets to protest the killing on November 25. Additional police forces were deployed in the area to ward off any untoward incident.

Superintendent of Police O N Bhaskar, who is supervising the situation, said that the situation was "tense but under control".

The police were gathering clues from a cross-section of people to identify the miscreants and the cause behind the murder, he said.

Bhaskar said the criminals had snapped electric wires plunging the area into darkness to conceal their identity.

The Maulana was the elder brother of Maulana Abdul Sami Zafri, head of Amre-e-ahle- hadis, a religious organisation of the minority community.

PTI