34 gunned down in Bihar village

By K. Balchand

GOH (Aurangabad), JUNE 17. At least 34 people, including woman and children, belonging to some intermediary backward castes and Dalits, were shot dead and 19 injured by gunmen of the Ranvir Sena, a private army of upper caste Bhumihars, in Mianpur tola of Upahara village under Goh police station limits of central Bihar's Aurangabad district last night.

Of the 19 injured, 13 were admitted to the Magadh Medical College Hospital, Gaya where the condition of three of them is said to be serious.

The killing was reportedly to avenge the killing of 35 Bhumihars in Senari village by members of the outlawed Maoist Communist Centre last year, though the immediate provocation is said to be the massacre of 13 members of a Bhumihar family in Nawada district last week by a criminal gang having the support of yet another intermediary backward caste, the Kurmis. The role of the DSP was also questioned in connection with the murder of 13 Bhumihars which in turn was said to be in retaliation to the killing of five Yadavs in Rajobigha village and the murder of three abducted Kurmis in Afsar by a gang led by Akhilesh Singh, husband of the Independent MLA, Mrs. Aruna Devi.

The Ranvir Sena chief, Barmeshwar Singh, is said to have met Akhilesh Singh soon after the Afsar massacre and yesterday's carnage is said to be a result of that meeting.

Hundreds of armed marauders swooped down on the village last night around 8 p.m. when most of the residents were having their supper and began firing indiscriminately from close range.

At least four of the dead were children - some were shot through the head and some through the eyes - while 15 women were killed. Never before were women targeted on such a large scale by the Ranvir Sena. The slain included 26 Yadavs, six Dushadhs, a sub- sect of a Scheduled Caste, and two carpenters. The police said the Ranvir Sena's obvious target were the Yadavs.

As the attack was launched from the north, the villagers believe the gunmen came from village Senari in Jehanabad district. Upahara is located at one end of Aurangabad district and borders Jehanabad and Gaya districts.

According to the locals, four Bhumihars of Senari came to the village on Friday morning under the pretext of searching for missing cattle and even bought edibles from a shop. The visit was apparently to get firsthand information about the location of certain houses.

The villagers chased the four out and even lodged a complaint at the Saharsa police outpost near Senari. The police ignored it but later sent a team which arrived around 7.30 p.m. and talked to the villagers. As soon as the police team reached the outskirts hundreds of gun-toting men arrived. The law enforcers promptly took to their heels leaving the villagers to fend for themselves.

The Chief Secretary, Mr. V.S. Dubey, rushed to the site and took stock of the situation.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal president, Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav, who went to the village stayed for a bout four hours and tried to console the bereaved families. None of the senior leaders of the National Democratic Alliance - the BJP, Samata Party or the JD(U) - went there.

The Chief Minister, Mrs. Rabri Devi, announced a compensation package including Rs. one lakh in cash and employment under the Indira Awas Yojana to each of the affected families. She directed officials to immediately nab the criminals and ordered the deployment of a large police force in the village. No arrest has been made so far.

Plan to impose Central rule: Laloo

PTI reports from Patna:

Talking to reporters later, Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav, charged that the massacre was ``part of the sinister design to topple and destabilise'' the Rabri Devi Ministry by ``feudal and fascist forces''.

Pointing out that the Government would not spare anyone involved in the ``dastardly act'', he said the move to destabilise the Government began after Mrs. Rabri Devi took over as Chief Minister. In Ranchi, regional BJP leaders reiterated their demand for the imposition of President's rule following what they termed ``a total collapse'' of law and order in the State.

``Three massacres including the one at Mianpur village district within a fortnight are enough to show that things in Bihar have gone completely out of gear and there is no authority in the state to tackle this gloomy scenario,'' the BJP's Vananchal Pradesh Shiksha Manch president, Mr. Satyendra Kumar Mallick, the general secretary, Dr. Preetam Kumar, and the secretary, Mr. Vijay Kumar Vinod, said in a joint statement.

Describing the situation in Bihar as fit for invocation of Article 356 of the Constitution, the leaders urged the President, Mr. K. R. Narayanan, to dismiss the Rabri Devi Government immediately.

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