Hyderabad:
Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader and MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi was today seriously injured when four unidentified assailants fired at him in the old city area.
Akbaruddin's fellow legislator from Malakpet constituency, Ahmed Balala, was also injured in the attack in Chandrayanagutta area when the former about to leave in his vehicle after attending a programme in his constituency, police said.
The three-time MLA does not have a police gunman for escort and most of the time drives the vehicle on his own.
Land dispute was said to be the reason for the attack on Akbaruddin, who had been preventing land-grabbers from encroaching on valuable government land mostly in the old city area.
The police gunman of MLA Balala was said to have retaliated and fired at the attackers, injuring one of them.
Soon after the incident, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy held a high-level meeting with Home Minister P Sabita Indra Reddy, Director General of Police K Aravinda Rao and Additional DGP (Intelligence) M Mahender Reddy and reviewed the situation.
Kiran later visited Akbaruddin in the Owaisi Hospital where he was operated upon to remove the bullet lodged in his shoulder. The Home Minister accompanied the Chief Minister to the hospital.
Assembly Deputy Speaker Nadendla Manohar also visited the injured MLA in the hospital.
City Commissioner of Police A K Khan was heckled at the hospital by MIM workers for allegedly failing to protect law and order in the city.