Five more die in Bihar revenge killing

The killing was believed to be in retaliation for the gunning down of 11 members of a Yadav family at Mujahidpur village under the same police station last Friday night, Jacob said.

A running feud over control of the property of Dhanauti Math had led to tension in the district, he said. It had claimed 16 lives over the past four days.

An official spokesman termed the situation in the district as very tense and said patrolling by the police and Central para-military forces had been intensified.

Additional reinforcements were being rushed to Siwan. Three companies of CRPF, two of the Rapid Action Force, besides the Bihar Military Police are already deployed in the sensitive pockets of the district.

Rashtriya Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav and state Congress president Chandan Bagchi have left for Siwan from Patna to take stock of the situation.

The CPI-ML, which is spearheading a campaign against the controversial RJD MP, Shahabuddin, facing several cases of murder, has described the killings as `an attempt to create communal disturbances.’

“Criminal gangs led by Shahabuddin and BJP-Samata backed Satish Pandey are behind the recent killings in Siwan. Unless the government comes down heavily on these gangs, the spiral of violence will continue to claim innocent lives,” party’s state secretary Ramjatan Sharma said.

Sharma said casualty in last night’s incident would have been much higher had the villagers, who gathered in large numbers, not challenged the marauders forcing them to beat a hasty retreat. Unfortunately, by then five lives were already lost, he said.

According to the locals, hundreds of acres of land of Dhanauti Math was at the core of the two massacres. The former Mahant of the Math Garbhu Gosain was forcibly evicted allegedly at the behest of Shahabuddin and Shivkumar Gosain was installed in his place.

The old Mahanth in order to get himself reinstalled, had sought the help of rival Satish Pandey gang, which was said to have killed two youths of a minority community a few days ago. The slain youths were supporters of the MP and their killing, police suspected, was the immediate reason for Saturday’s massacre of 11 Yadavas.

In a recent raid on the Math, the police had recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition, including an AK-47 rifle and carbines.