Killing of three persons at Jamui village by Maoists triggers panic

P Mishra

Giridih: The killing of three villagers allegedly by armed Maoists at village Gadi village under Chakai police station in  Jamui district in Bihar in the wee hours on Sunday has reminded people of Bhelwaghati and Chilkhari massacres in Giridih district in Jharkhand. The place of occurrence is about 5km away from Bhelwaghati under Deori block of Giridih.

The deceased have been identified as Mukesh Kumar Rai (25), Yogendra Turi (35) and Tipan Mandal. While Rai and Turi are the residents of Chowki and Garanga village under Bhelwaghati police station of Giridih, Mandal was the   resident of Gadi village in Jamui.

In red posters thrown at the place of occurrence, the ultras branded the deceased as police informers and held the trio responsible for the death of the Maoists leader Jodhan Mahto alias Chirag Da, who was killed in encounter with police under Chakai PS areas close to the Jharkhand- Bihar border in January this year.“Special Police Officers (SPOs), who are now acting as police informers, would face trial at Jan Adalat (Kangaroo court of the Maoists),” the red posters said.

“All are innocent citizens, not police informers. By committing such a heinous crime, they are trying to terrorize the villagers so that they could regain power across the region,” said Giridih DSP RK Mehta.

On Saturday midnight, almost two dozens  armed Maoists picked up the trio from their respective residence and took them towards the dense forest of Gadi village,  beheaded and threw their bodies near a paddy field.

“It hardly matters, whether the site of incident comes under our jurisdiction or not, as our joint operations against the ultras are going on. We have intensified our security across the suspected locations in Bhelwghati, Deori, the inaccessible villages or small hamlets close to the border,” said Giridih SP Akhilesh B Variar, adding that the district police have also sounded high alert in Parasnath and other Maoists strongholds of the district.

On September 2005, the Maoists had butchered at least 15 villagers suspecting them to be the members of the Gram Raksha Dal, a group of local youths created by the former chief minister and JVM chief Babulal Marandi.

The Maoists, on the other hand,  had triggered serial blasts killing about 20 villagers including the 22 year old son of former Chief Minister Babu Lal Marandi at Chikhari ground under Deori PS of Giridih. The incident took place around 7 – 8 pm when hundreds of villagers had gathered to see a cultural program on Chilkhari ground.