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For some victims of the Bihar massacre, it was a close shave

She egged her husband on to rescue their son from the clutches of the extremists. The son was saved but she lost her husband in the bargain.

Kusum Devi, a resident of Senari, heard the cries of her terrified son when the Naxalites struck in the village on Thursday evening. She persuaded her husband Chandra Bhushan Sharma to go out and save him.

Sharma, a poor farmer, somehow saved his son Rakesh before he himself was dragged to a temple and beheaded by the extremists who slew as many as 33 people.

Kusum Devi, who was sobbing inconsolably while narrating her heart-rending tale, however, considers herself fortunate to have saved her son from near-certain death.

The injured victims of the Senari massacre being treated at the Anuragh Narayan Nagadha Medical College hospital in the city were under trauma and were still too shocked to tell their tales.

Only those who had taken shelter in the haystack could survive the extremists' fury, they said.

Some eyewitnesses to the carnage, who were tending to their injured relatives, said the extremists, with a motive to divert the attention of the police, had attacked the nearby Saharsa police picket at 1800 hrs on Thursday before making the Senari village their target. The extremists attacked the village at 1900 hrs and left at 2300 hrs.

They said at least 50 people had lost their lives in the attack.

Meanwhile, the Maoist Communist Centre has taken the responsibility of the carnage. According to sources, the Peoples War had sought assistance from the MCC to ''take revenge from the Ranvir Sena after the Shankarbigha carnage in Jehanabad district". The leaders of both the outfits held a meeting in this connection early this month.

The sources further said that leaders of both the banned outfits were expected to participate in a seminar being organised in Jehanabad today by the All India Resistance Forum against multinationals.

However, the Jehanabad district administration has banned the seminar.

UNI

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