11 labourers shot dead in Bihar

By K. Balchand

PATNA, MAY 12. At least 11 labourers, four of them Dalits, were killed and five injured in a rivalry between two contractors over illegal quarrying of sand in Hasanput village, Bihar today. The village falls under Lakhisarai police station of Lakhisarai district.

The contractors are engaged in a war of supremacy over extracting sand from the bed of river Kiul. A gang of one of the contractors descended on the spot where the labourers were loading sand into a truck and opened fire indiscriminately.

The unofficial death toll is 13.

The immediate cause for the flare-up between the contractors, both enjoying political patronage from different parties, was the construction of a road by one of them to the point of extraction. The two have been having a running battle for well over six years that has left over 150 people dead.

Tension prevails in neighbouring villages even as senior civil and police officials are camping at the site. The villagers refused to part with the bodies and the RJD president, Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav, faced their ire.Mr. Yadav's promise to nab the culprits, irrespective of their political affiliations, and his announcement of compensation of Rs. 1 lakh and employment to the families of the deceased softened the locals in allowing police take the bodies for post-mortem. The Chief Minister, Mrs. Rabri Devi, ordered an inquiry into the incident by the Lakhisarai district magistrate.

The Opposition parties have condemned the killings and accused the RJD Government of failing to protect the poor. The CPI charged that the killing was the fallout of the war between contractors enjoying the patronage of the ruling RJD and the NDA.

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