CALCUTTA, India (UCAN) -- A Salesian priest has been shot dead in northeastern Manipur state less than a month after the beheading of a Jesuit priest in Bihar, eastern India.

An unknown gunman shot Father Jose Nedumattathil in his office at 9:15 p.m. Nov. 22, Imphal archdiocese secretary Father Jose Manjakunnel told UCA News.

The 35-year-old priest was principal of Don Bosco College in Maram, some 80 kilometers north of the Manipur state capital of Imphal.

Salesian Father Tom Karthikapallil, principal of Imphal's Don Bosco school, told UCA News that Maram village elders vowed to help police find the culprit.

Father Manjakunnel said Nov. 24 he suspected "disgruntled" students were responsible, noting that Father Nedumattathil had sent some "mischievous" students home to get their parents.

However, militant tribal groups fighting for self-determination in the region regularly demand money from area institutions, and failure to pay often ends in death, according to missioners working in the state.

The Catholic Association of Manipur condemned the murder during Sunday Mass Nov. 23 at Don Bosco Church in Imphal.

Archbishop Henry D'Souza of Calcutta and some 12,000 Catholics at the annual Christ the King Eucharistic procession offered prayers for the slain priest and the insurgency-ridden Imphal mission.

On Nov. 18 the slain priest had been named the first principal of Don Bosco College, upgraded from a high school during his four years of service there.

The Salesian provincial office in Dimapur said the native of south India's Kerala state would be buried Nov. 25 in Dimapur, near the Nagaland border.

Father Nedumattathil was the third priest-principal shot in the last seven years in Imphal. While two of the priests died, the third survived and is ministering in another part of the country under a different identity.

Meanwhile, there has been no reported progress in the investigation of the beheading of Jesuit Father A.T. Thomas whose headless body was found by colleagues on Oct. 27. Church sources say the priest was killed by some who were opposed to his work among the poor.

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