The Maoists gunned down three tribal villagers and set afire a former mukhia’s house in Bihar’s Rohtas district late on Saturday evening reportedly in retaliation of the recent murder of one of their top commanders by a rival Maoist faction.
While unconfirmed reports put the number of dead in Banda village under Nauhatta police station at five, Bihar DGP Neelmani said on Sunday that “only three villagers” of the Kharwar tribe were killed in the firing by the Maoists and that three bodies were recovered in the morning. Former mukhia (village council head) Sugrib Kharwar’s house was set afire by the rebels by using kerosene.
“Massive combing operations have been launched jointly by the state police and paramilitary forces. Senior officials are at the spot monitoring the situation,” said Neelmani. Tension prevails in the village and surrounding areas since the time of the murders.
Sources said the attacks were in retaliation of the murder of top self-styled rebel commander Birendra Rana by the rival rebel group of Kharwars recently. The cause of the attack on the house of Sugrib Kharwar, who leads the Kaimuranchal Vikas Morcha organisation fighting against the Maoists in the area, was his failure to appear at a kangaroo court of the Maoists a few weeks back. Police officials did not rule out the possibility of a fresh flare-up of violence between the villagers and the Maoists in near future in the village.
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Naxals abduct over 100 tribals in Dantewada
Rabindra Nath Choudhury
Raipur
July 31: Suspected Maoists reportedly abducted more than 100 tribals, including women and children, from two villages in Chhattisgarh’s insurgency hit Dantewada district early on Sunday, reports reaching here said.
Police sources said armed rebels stormed tribal villages of Solgunda and Marigunda under Dornapal police station in the wee hours of Sunday and herded all the villagers at gun point to the nearby forest after they refused to join them in observing “martyrs week”.
The Left wing radicals are observing “martyrs week” since July 28. The villagers were yet to return to their villages. Police has launched a search operation in the area.