A day after the outlawed CPI (Maoist) members gunned down five people at a wedding ceremony in Jharkhand’s Gumla district, the rival People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI) members shot dead four brothers in cold blood in a swift retaliation late on Sunday night.
Armed members of the PLFI, a self-styled Maoist outfit waging an internecine turf war with other Maoist groups in Jharkhand, swooped on Dekia Kedli village in the midnight and knocked on the doors of the Barhi family. Immediately after they opened the door, they were shot at, said villagers. Police identified the dead brothers as Jeetu Barhi, Basant Barhi, Mahesh Barhi and Sheet Barhi.
The Barhi family was reportedly suspected by the PLFI to have been sympathisers of the CPI (Maoist), which had killed five people, including the bridegroom, at Lomki village of Gumla district on Saturday night while looking for PLFI commander Mangal Nageshia, who they believed to be attending the wedding ceremony. Jharkhand police spokesman S.N. Pradhan said the four brothers’ murders were suspected to be a retaliatory act by the PLFI, which had called a daylong bandh in three districts — Gumla, Simdega and Latehar — on Monday to protest the murder of the five people. The intense rivalry between the CPI(Maoist) and the PLFI mainly for control over areas and the population has claimed many innocent lives. “Now it seems the police have to evolve a new strategy to deal with such growing tragedies caused due to no other reason than the rivalries among the various rebel groups operating in the state. This has become a serious concern,” said Pradhan.