LUCKNOW, March 8 -- A 36-year-old journalist of a national Hindi news daily and RTI activist, Raghvendra Bajpai, was shot dead in a daylight attack on the Lucknow-Delhi highway under Maholi police station limits in Sitapur district on Saturday, senior police officials said.

Doctors confirmed that Bajpai sustained two bullet wounds in the upper abdomen.

The incident led to protests as hundreds gathered at the postmortem house, demanding immediate arrests. Lucknow range inspector general (IG) of police, Prashant Kumar II, visited Sitapur in the evening to assess the situation and briefed UP director general of police (DGP) Prashant Kumar. A strong police presence was deployed in Maholi tehsil to maintain order.

Additional superintendent ...