Maoists gun down Giridih mica contractor

After a brief lull, Naxalites have once again stepped up their activities in Giridih district. In yet another attack, more than 25 armed Maoists in police uniform killed a mica contractor Shyamsundar Rawut of Gumdhi village and injured nine others at Vardehi forest area under the lukainayanpur police station of the Giridih district on Friday morning.

Around 4 am the ultras set ablaze one JCB machine and one tractor used for mining and carrying mica and other related equipment were gutted in the explosions. While the JCB machine has been completely burnt other equipment have been damaged. The police have also confirmed that crude bombs had been used in the blast.

According to reports reaching here on Friday large number of Maoists raided Vardehi forest area around in the wee hours and held 11 people including Shyamsunder Rawut captive. later, they took them to nearby forest area and tied them with tree and beat them. Then they pumped two bullets into Shyamsundar's body, killing him on the spot.

Nine others sustained critical injuries have been identifies as Md Afzal, PankaJ Panday, Dilip Rawut, Suresh Das, Kuldip Das, Babulal Rawut, Daso Ravidas, Chhotu Verma and Vikas Yadav. The number of injured could increase as many have rushed to Giridih civil hospital, police said .

The victims, all said to be mica mafias, were engaged in illegal mica mining at Vardehi forest when the rebels struck. Senior police officials from Giridih -- including Vijay Kujur and officer-in charge of lukainayanpur police station Kisun Murmu -- have rushed to the spot after the local police informed top officials of the incident.

The area, close to Bihar border, has been an essay target for the Maoists.  Police are assessing the damaged caused to the JCB machine and tractor and ruled out extortion demand from mica mafias as reason behind the attacks. A combing operation has been launched in the area to nab the ultras. Tisari block is recently witnessing rise in Maoists activities and the law enforcing authorities are spending sleepless nights over it.