Rediff On The NeT: BJP accuses Laloo Yadav of instigating Bhimpura killings


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March 4, 1999

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BJP accuses Laloo Yadav of instigating Bhimpura killings

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Bharatiya Janata Party politician Sushil Kumar Modi, leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Legislative Assembly, today accused Rashtriya Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav of instigating Tuesday's killings in Bhimpura in Jehanabad district.

Addressing a crowded press conference in Parliament House, Modi said Yadav had visited five villages neighbouring Bhimpura, including Niazipur, Kishanpur and Pinjora, and instigated Naxalites of the People's War Group to wreak vengeance on the Ranvir Sena.

Modi said the press in the state, including in Patna, has published details of how the former chief minister had incited the PWG cadre.

Modi said "this is a conspiracy" and demanded Laloo Yadav's immediate arrest.

While holding both the RJD and the Congress in Bihar responsible for the Bhimpura killings, Modi emphasised that the people in the state are happy with the dismissal of the Rabri Devi government and the imposition of President's rule.

He claimed that while massacres took place regularly under RJD rule in the last nine years, the state administration under Governor S S Bhandari has arrested 40 Ranvir Sena activists in the last few days and the law-and-order situation in Bihar has improved.

Answering a question, he said the Party Unity splinter group of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) had merged with the PWG and Laloo Yadav had links with PU leader Ravi Kandhu.

Meanwhile, intelligence reports reaching the Union home ministry have indicated that a tapestry of reprisals and counter-reprisals is being woven in central Bihar by the Leftist extremists and the Ranvir Sena.

A joint secretary in the home ministry told Rediff On The NeT that extremists from Chatra, Daltonganj, and Hazaribagh districts in south Bihar are sneaking into central Bihar to help their colleagues fight the Ranvir Sena. These extremists include activists of the Maoist Communist Centre, PU-PWG, and two other Naxalite splinter groups.

The secretary said sophisticated foreign firearms are being increasingly found in several districts of central Bihar, including Nawade, Gaya, Aurangabad and Biharsharief.

He did not rule out the possibility of the firearms having been smuggled in from Pakistan and China, and added that automatic pistols and AK-47 and AK-56 rifles are freely available in central Bihar. An AK-47 rifle can be bought for Rs90,000, he said.

Asked what steps the administration under Governor Bhandari is taking to curb the blood-letting, the officials said that despite government forces being on constant alert, it is difficult to monitor the movements of the extremists and Ranvir Sena activists.

Significantly, the Ranvir Sena's spokesman in Patna, Shamsher Bahadur Singh, has let it be known that the Bhimpura killings of four upper-caste persons and the gunning down of seven Ranvir Sena activists in Usri Bazaar, Jehanabad, will trigger a terrible reprisal. This is an indication that the cycle of massacres in central Bihar will continue, no matter which party is ruling the state.

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