PATNA, India: Hundreds of leftist peasants hacked, shot and burned to death at least 42 members of upper caste landlord families in Bihar state, officials said.
State government and police officials said lower caste Yadavs, or cow herders, attacked seven upper caste Rajput families in two villages in Aurangabad district, 72 miles south of the state capital of Patna.
“The mob first slit their throats, all houses were torched and those escaping to the fields were shot and butchered”, R.N. Das, Home Secretary of Bihar told the Associated Press.
Das said about 800 Yadavs took part in the massacre in this impoverished east India state, where caste tension has been escalating with lower caste leftist peasants’ demands for more rights and land.
Police and federal paramilitary reinforcements were rushed to the twin villages of Jalalchak and Bhagaura, where the massacre occurred. Das said 22 people were arrested,
The United News of India quoted state government spokesman K.A.H. Subramanian as blaming the attack on “armed extremists”. The report said they belonged to the underground Maoist Communist Center.
The leftists are demanding land reform, higher wages, an end to caste discrimination, and treating other social problems endemic in Bihar, the poorest of the Indian States.
The state, with a population of 80 million people, is known for battles between upper and lower castes. The annual per capita income is $110 a year.
Government officials said the dead included 16 children, ages 2 to 12.
Das said residents fled the villages in panic after the 2:30 a.m. massacres.
All houses in the adjacent villages were set ablaze in the attack. Officials said they were still pulling bodies from charred homes. The unofficial death toll was placed at 5060.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 5, 1987
