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35 massacred in Bihar; Rabri promises stern measures against culprits

The police today swung into action launching a massive combing operation and sealing all the border areas in Bihar to apprehend the Maoist Communist Centre activists who mowed down at least 35 people in Jehanabad district last night.

A senior police official told UNI in Patna that the MCC militants attacked the Senari village and dragged out all the male members of the village and tied their hands and feet before beheading them.

Seven people, including a woman, who were injured in the incident, were admitted to the Gaya medical college hospital in a critical condition.

He said state Director General of Police T P Sinha, Inspector General of Police (Naxalite operation) M K Sinha, Deputy Inspector General of Police (Magadh range) S K Bharadwaj and other senior police officials were camping at the site of the massacre.

Tension prevailed in the area following the incident.

The lone injured woman was identified as Bibha Kumari. The other injured were Rakesh Kumar, Ajay Kumar, Mohan Sharma, Arun Kumar, Anil Sharma and Mathura Sharma.

The police said the extremists opened fire to scare the villagers.

According to the villagers, the militants raided the village when the people were asleep. They said the extremists raised slogans saying they revenged the Sankarbigha and Narayanpur carnages and distributed leaflets in the area before fleeing.

This is the fourth massacre in the extremist-dominated Jehanabad district this year. The first incident occurred at Shankerbigha on January 25 in which 22 people, mostly women and children, were killed allegedly by the Ranvir Sena activists.

Eleven dalits were killed in Narayanpur by suspected Ranvir Sena activists on February 10 and on February 14 seven people were gunned down in Usribazar.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Rabri Devi today condemned the massacre.

She said the unfortunate incident was the fallout of enmity among rival extremist groups.

She lamented that poor people were the worst-sufferers of such heinous activities and said the government would take stern measures against the culprits.

Rashtriya Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav also condemned the massacre.

Regretting the incident in the Naxalite-dominated areas of the state, he said this was the first major incident after President's rule was lifted in the state.

He said the police had failed to control such incidents and added that the administration must bring the culprits to book.

Leader of opposition in Bihar assembly, Sushil Kumar Modi today demanded Rabri Devi's resignation following the massacre.

Modi said the Bharatiya Janata Party would move an adjournment motion in the house on the issue.

Talking to UNI in Patna, the BJP leader held the state government responsible for the carnage and alleged that Rabri Devi and Laloo Yadav had conspired the massacre.

He also alleged that Laloo Yadav was discriminating on caste basis and said the latter did not even visit carnage sites like Rampur Aira, Rampur Cahuram and Usri Nikhral, where upper caste people have been killed.

Condemning the massacre, Bihar Congress unit president Sadanand Singh said the state government had totally failed to contain the massacres.

Singh said the Congress had already sent a team for making an on-the-spot assessment of the situation.

He appealed to all the political parties and non-governmental organisations to cooperate in tackling the situation.

UNI

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