The Canada Brief

World · 7 d ago

Panoramic view of Guwahati

Anushila Bharali · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Five people shot dead at a hotel in Guwahati, India

Police say five people were shot dead and a sixth was wounded at Hotel Bilas Inn in Guwahati, in India's Assam state, around 9 p.m. local time on Monday. The hotel's leaseholder was arrested within an hour, and a licensed .32-bore pistol was seized.

What we know

  • Five people died and one was wounded
  • The accused was arrested within an hour
  • A licensed pistol was seized

Not yet

  • Motive: police suspect a lease dispute
  • Full sequence of events, under investigation

Police said all the dead were linked to the hotel's owner, four of them from one family. They suspect a dispute over the hotel's lease but have not reached a conclusion on the motive.

State Congress president Gaurav Gogoi, an opposition MP, said the shooting raises "serious concerns about public safety" and urged Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to pay more attention to rising crime.