M A I N   N E W S

11 massacred in Bihar

LAKHISARAI (Bihar), May 12 (PTI) — Eleven persons, including 10 labourers of backward communities, were killed, and four seriously injured when unidentified assailants sprayed bullets at them at Balughat in Lakhisarai district late last night, the police said today.

Heavily-armed assailants fired indiscriminately at the victims when they were scooping out sand and loading a truck in the riverbed of Kiul behind a marketing board complex here, the state DGP, Mr K.A. Jacob, said.

A driver was among the 11 persons killed on-the-spot. The injured were being rushed to Patna Medical College Hospital after first-aid at a state-run hospital here, Mr Jacob said.

A senior police official described the killing as the “handiwork of notorious Janardan Singh Gang” that is locked in a conflict with its rivals over the contract awarded by the state government for lifting of sand from the riverbed.

The Chief Minister, Ms Rabri Devi and the RJD President, Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav, condemned the act and said the culprits be brought to book at the earliest.

Raids were being conducted at various places here to arrest the killers, Mr Jacob said.

Meanwhile, Ms Rabri Devi directed the Lakhisarai district Magistrate to probe the incident and submit a report at the earliest.

She said the state government would provide adequate compensation to the dependents of the victims, and added that she had sent the Law Minister, Mr Shakeel Ahmed Khan, to make an on-the-spot study of the situation.

The Opposition leader in state Assembly Mr S.K. Modi, while condemning the killing, said it was yet another instance of total collapse of law and order in Bihar.

He sought immediate steps to arrest the killers and adequate compensation to the kin of those killed.

The government should provide free medicare to those who suffered injuries in the incident, Modi said, adding that a fact-finding team of the BJP would soon visit Lakhisarai to make an on-the-spot study of the situation.