Buxar: A long-running dispute over sand dumping turned deadly in Ahiyapur village under the Rajpur police station area in Buxar district on Saturday, leaving three brothers dead and two others critically injured.The gunfight has triggered widespread outrage and heightened tension in the region.According to sources, 35-year-old Mantu Singh Yadav, who sustained serious bullet wounds to the stomach and leg, remains in critical condition at a hospital in Varanasi. His brothers, Vinod Singh Yadav and Sunil Singh Yadav, died on the spot while Virendra Singh Yadav succumbed to his injuries during treatment. Another brother, Punj Singh Yadav, was also shot and is undergoing treatment.The violence erupted early Saturday morning near a canal bank when a group of men arrived in a car and confronted the victims. A heated argument quickly snowballed into indiscriminate firing. Eyewitnesses and a viral video of the attack show the assailants firing openly before fleeing the site. The car used in the attack is linked to a former district board member, raising suspicions of political involvement.Preliminary police investigations suggested the clash was the result of a longstanding land dispute over the dumping of gravel and sand. Tensions had flared the previous evening following a heated exchange between the two sides, though it was believed the matter had been resolved.In protest, the victims’ family members and angry villagers blocked the Buxar-Kochas main road, placing one of the bodies on the highway and demanding immediate arrests. The blockade caused a traffic jam stretching over 10km. It was lifted only after the intervention of Buxar DM Anshul Aggarwal and Shahabad range DIG Satyaprakash, who assured strict action.Senior officials, including the DM, DIG and Buxar SP Shubham Arya, visited the village to assess the situation. SP Arya said police teams are conducting raids and that technical analysis of the viral video is being done to identify the attackers.State minister Janak Ram also visited the village and blamed the Grand Alliance, alleging it harbours criminal elements. “Strict action must be taken,” he said.CPI(ML) MLA from Dumraon, Ajit Kumar Singh, hit back at the ruling NDA govt, accusing it of allowing crime to flourish. “Criminals are now running the govt in Bihar,” he allged.Grieving family members recalled the sequence of events leading to the attack. “They were already angry over us dumping gravel where they wanted to dump sand. They assaulted my brother on Friday with the butt of a gun. On Saturday, they came back with a plan and killed him,” said Sonu Kumar, brother of Vinod Singh Yadav.“They were from the mukhiya’s side. My father was from the opposition. There was already tension. We want justice,” said Nidhi, daughter of one of the deceased, tearfully pleading with folded hands before DM Aggarwal and DIG Satyaprakash.Despite police assurances, the assailants remained at large. The atmosphere in Ahiyapur was tense. A heavy police force was deployed in the village to prevent further violence.