JAMMU: BJP's state secretary Anil Parihar and his brother were shot dead in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar on Thursday evening, the police said. The police are trying to find out if the attack on Mr Parihar and his brother Ajit was carried out by terrorists or it was a criminal incident.

A curfew has been imposed in the area and the army has been asked to remain on standby amid fears that the incident could trigger unrest. The two men were returning from their shop around 8 pm when they were fired upon from close range in a dark, narrow lane leading to their house in the Tapal Gali Mohalla of Kishtwar town which falls in the Jammu region of the state.

"Anil and Ajit Parihar were shot and killed in Kishtwar town by unidentified gunmen on Thursday evening. A manhunt has been launched to trace the assassins," the police said.

The assailants were apparently waiting for the brothers to return home and used pistols to target them, officials told news agency IANS.

They were taken to a hospital where doctors declared them brought dead, they said.

BJP state general secretary Ashok Kaul condemned the attack.

This is the first attack on any political leader in the Jammu region in the past several years. A curfew has been imposed in Kishtwar and restrictions are being enforced in other towns of the Chenab Valley region of Jammu. Security forces have been put on high alert.

Ajit Parihar was an employee of the state Financial Corporation.