MASSACRE AT NIGHT: A poignant scene as the former Jharkhand Chief Minister, Babulal Marandi (second from left), looks at the body of his son, Anup, and those of 17 others after Maoists gunned them down at Chikhadia village on Saturday. The victims were attending a cultural programme when the extremists, disguised as CRPF personnel, struck. Nunulal, brother of Mr. Babulal Marandi, however, escaped. This is one of the most brutal naxalite attacks since last year's massacre in Errabore, Chhattisgarh. Around 30 died in that incident.
HYDERABAD: Maoists killed 18 persons, including the son of the former Jharkhand Chief Minister, Babulal Marandi, when they opened indiscriminate fire on a group of people watching a cultural programme in Chikhadia village in Jharkhand, in the small hours of Saturday. Around eight persons were injured in the attack.
Over 40 extremists mingled with the crowd and opened fire with automatic weapons, after their target Nunulal Marandi, brother of Mr. Babulal Marandi escaped, Jharkhand’s Additional DGP, G.S. Rath told The Hindu over telephone. Mr. Anup Marandi fell to a hail of bullets.
Mr. Babulal Marandi is presently an MP of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) representing Koderma constituency.
The JVM leader had been a Maoist target, ever since he began opposing naxalite activity in his constituency bordering Bihar. Chikhadia village, which comes under Deori police station limits, is some four km away from the Bihar border and is known to be a hotbed of Maoist activity.
GRIEF-STRICKEN: The grieving mother and other relatives of Anup Marandi, gunned down in the Maoist attack, in Giridih near Dhanbad on Saturday.
Mr. Rath said both Mr. Nunulal and Mr. Anup were participating in the well-publicised meeting in the village. There was a football match followed by a music programme. Police personnel on security withdrew after the match and did not stay for the music programme which continued well beyond midnight.
“Around 12.45 a.m. the Maoists took control of the stage and announced that Nunulal should surrender himself to them. As repeated announcements were being made, people scattered and Mr. Nunulal escaped. After the Maoists realised this, they fired shots directly into the audience with high-power weapons like SLRs and carbines,” Mr. Rath said. Except one or two victims, all were tribals.
Police are enquiring how the police personnel on security withdrew from the ground. Mr. Rath said the threat perception of Mr. Babulal Marandi and his brother were regularly assessed and district officials were alerted about the possibility of a Maoist attack on them. However, Mr. Anup Marandi, was not on the Maoist hit-list.
Police suspect that Maoists from Bihar could have been involved in the attack, one of the most brutal ones, after the Errabore killings in Chhattisgarh. Giridh district on the Bihar- Jharkhand border has been the centre stage of naxalite activity and in one of the most daring raids on a Home Guard Training centre in Giridh on November 11, 2005, Maoists looted 190 rifles.
On March 4, 2007, Maoists shot dead Sunil Kumar Mahato, an MP of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and three others in Beguria village of East Singhbhum district. According to an MHA report on internal security, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand accounted for 67.46 per cent of total incidents of Maoist violence in the country and 75.98 per cent of total casualties.
PTI reports:
Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda termed the attack a “conspiracy” and said he had spoken to his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar seeking assistance for joint raids.
Nunulal Marandi, who survived the attack.
“The sequence of happenings emits the smell of a conspiracy. But it can be unravelled only after a thorough probe. I have sent our Director General of Police (V.D. Ram) for a spot inspection,” Mr. Koda told PTI at his residence in Ranchi without elaborating.
Five companies of para-military forces from Jharkhand and Bihar are embarking on a massive combing operation in the contiguous areas of the two states to trace the attackers, the DGP said.
Mr. Ram visited the carnage site and told newsmen that he had spoken to his counterpart in Bihar after the attack.
Mr. Nitish Kumar said, “There is no place for violence in a democracy. Such elements should be dealt with sternly.” Earlier, he spoke to Mr. Babulal Marandi and Mr. Koda to convey his shock and sympathies to the families of those killed in the attack.
The JVM has called a statewide bandh on Sunday, party sources said.
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