Continuing their attacks on “traitors” in their area of influence, CPI (Maoist) cadres gunned down eight persons, including three women, and injured one on Tuesday morning in Gumla district.Sources in Gumla told The Indian Express that an armed squad led by Maoist leaders Sunil Bhuinyan and Manoj Nagesia intercepted a Bolero in which Bhado Singh along with his eight family members was travelling, at Semra village. The attackers, using automatic weapons, fired indiscriminately at the vehicle killing eight of the occupants, including Singh. One of his relatives, Renu Devi, escaped with injuries and is being treated at a local hospital. According to DIG R K Mallick, Singh returned the fire with his licensed weapon but was outnumbered. Singh, a farmer of neighbouring Gudma village, had been running a resistence movement under the banner of Shanti Sena against the Naxalites since 2001. “They were on the hit list of the Naxalites for quite some time. But they did not take enough precautions. Even the police did not bother to provide them security cover,” said Sudhir Singh, a relative of Bhado Singh.The police have launched a combing operation but no arrests have been made so far. On Monday, three persons, including a 65-year-old man, were killed by the Maoists in two separate incidents. The first incident took place in Tukudiri village in West Singhbhum district where the militants cadres beat up to death Rasika Bhuinya, a chowkidar, alleging that he was a police informer. In the other case, two persons were shot dead in Lohardaga district on the same charge.Tuesday’s was the third consecutive attack on those who are being perceived as working against Maoists. The Maoists have called a Jharkhand-Bihar bandh on April 16 to protest against what they allege as police zulm (highhandedness).
