6 Killed By Left Ultras

Six persons, including a postal department staff, were gunned down by armed activists of the banned CPI-ML (Party Unity) in Turi village under Balagunj police station of gaya district on Sunday.

Official sources said here that nearly 50 armed members of the ultra-Left outfit swooped down on the village, dominated by the upper castes, and sprayed bullets on villagers sitting inside the house of the postal department employee, Shyandeo Singh.

Six persons, including Singh, died on the spot. Another person, who received bullet injuries was being treated at the government hospital here. The victims were identified as Bindeshwar Singh, Mithilesh Singh, Shailendra Kumar, Surendra Sharma and Arjun Sharma. Sources said the shootout was in retaliation of the killing of three members of the banned outfit by armed members of a pro-landlord private army in neighbouring Jehanabad district a fortnight ago.

State director general of police S K Saxena, DIG (police) Magadh range, Neelmani and other senior police officials have rushed to the spot and an intensive combing operation launched to track down the killers, sources added.