Muslim-Yadav war boils over, 10 killed

Ten villagers, including four children, were shot and stabbed to death in Jagdishpur village, 40 km from Siwan in northwestern Bihar, in the...

Ten villagers, including four children, were shot and stabbed to death in Jagdishpur village, 40 km from Siwan in northwestern Bihar, in the wee hours of Saturday, police said.

The victims were Muslims and belonged to the Fakir community that sings and collects alms for a living, police said. All of them were killed while they were asleep, they added. The assailants allegedly fled to neighbouring Uttar Pradesh after the massacre that took place around 1 am.

Following the incident, Siwan District Magistrate Brajesh Mehrotra and SP Jaglal Choudhary rushed to the village and were camping there. Officials said raids were on simultaneously at several places in UP and Bihar to nab the criminals.

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‘‘I have no idea how and why it happened. We were sleeping, and everything happened within seconds,’’ said a woman who lost her son in the massacre.

Official sources said the massacre was the result of the ongoing war of supremacy between Muslim and Yadav gangs operating in the Siwan-Gopalganj districts of the state.

Police suspected ‘‘revenge’’ as the motive behind the latest massacre. A few months ago, seven members of the Yadav community were gunned down at a village in Siwan, and police believed the latest killings to be a fallout of that. Police also suspected the hands of the Rama Shanker Yadav gang behind today’s massacre.