Haryanvi singer and YouTuber Ankit Balyan was shot dead by unidentified assailants outside a gym in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district on Wednesday evening, police said.
The attack took place within the Kotwali police station area as Balyan was stepping out of the gym.
Police said the assailants arrived on two motorcycles and opened several rounds of fire at him; he died on the spot.
Superintendent of Police M P Singh said officers rushed to the scene on receiving information about the shooting. "The body has been sent for a post-mortem examination, and an investigation is underway," he told reporters, adding that teams had been formed to trace the accused.
Investigators are reviewing CCTV footage from the area to identify the attackers, officials said.
Speculation swirled that Balyan may have been planning to contest upcoming panchayat polls, though neither the police nor his associates have officially confirmed this as a possible motive.
Balyan had built a following of over 3.66 lakh subscribers on YouTube, where he appeared as a singer and performer alongside various collaborators, with several of his videos featuring guns, firearms and SUVs.
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Political Reactions Pour In
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav condemned the killing as "highly condemnable," arguing that the state's law-and-order situation had collapsed and calling for the case to be probed for a possible political-rivalry angle.
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister also described the killing as an attack on the Jat community.
In a post on X accompanied by a news clip, Yadav said the shooting, in which 18 rounds were reportedly fired, had "created fear throughout the region."
He called reports of Balyan's mother mourning over her son's body on the road "heart-wrenching," and said the Jat community across Uttar Pradesh viewed the killing as an assault on itself, demanding the immediate arrest of those responsible.
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