A day after three police commandos were gunned down in Maharashtra, the Maoists on Thursday blew up a vehicle in Aurangabad district killing all seven people inside it.
Police officials said that the incident took place at Pathara village under Khudma police station, some 50 kms away from the district headquarters, where the Maoists had planted a cane bomb to blow up the vehicle. They targeted the Sport Utility Vehicle Safari when it was crossing the village road. Five of the deceased people were of the same family.
Aurangabad is one of the worst-affected Maoists districts in Bihar.
Among the deceased, Shushil Pandey, husband of Aurangabad zila parishad member Usha Devi, was one of them. It is said that Pandey was returning to his native village Pisai when the Maoists targeted his vehicle through land mine blast. The vehicle and the bodies of the deceased persons were blown up and it was difficult to locate them.
It is said that he had gone to Aurangabad for medical treatment of a villager who was bitten by a snake. He was returning after getting medical treatment to the person who himself was killed in the incident.
Six of the bodies have been recovered whereas one is traceless.
Pandey, said local officials, was on the hit list of the Naxals and he was reportedly released from jail recently. He was also said to be associated with the upper caste private army Ranvir Sena.