Day after massacre in Chambal, target of anger is police

The central image was a letter left by the Gadaria gang on the blood-spattered corpses. It said: ‘‘Jai Lakheshwari Ma, Jai Sheetala Ma, Jai Kali Ma. We will kill 25 more people before Diwali.’’

Listing the names of the eight gangsters, Gadaria is believed to have also written, ‘‘We are murdering your people, because you betrayed us to the police. This is a lesson.’’

SP Prasad told The Sunday Express that the letter had been kept as evidence. He senses the anger of the villagers, as did CM Babulal Gaur, who fired all officers at the Mauna police station and promised a government job to one member from each affected family and Rs 2 lakh as compensation. He promised a 5-man permanent police chowki in the village.

The villagers of Bhanwarpura do not believe in the police even though this is the first truly frightening incident in their lives. More police officers does not mean more safety, one man says ‘‘It means less’’.

The 13 villagers of Bhanwarpura, shot dead on Friday morning, leave one survivor behind, reeling under general anaesthesia at the Jayarogya Hospital in Gwalior.—feigning death at the scene of the 9 am massacre was his only chance. Pappu, 25, who curled up foetus-like with three bullets in his chest and legs, was pronounced out of danger this evening.