Primary School Headmaster Butchered by Maoists in front of Students

A day after a group of villagers refused to join an anti-government rally and chased away Maoists, Maoists on Saturday killed a headmaster of a school in Jhagram for not allowing his students to take part in another rally in West Midnapore district.

Comrade Rabindranath Mahto (45) was about to leave Indrabani Primary School at about 3 pm after the school hours when six Maoists came in three motorbikes and dragged him in front of the school building.

Maoists butchers then hacked him with an axe before shooting him from close range, killing him on the spot. Another teacher Shyamlal Mandi was also present there but he was spared. Maoists and People's Committee against Police Atrocities used to force men, women and students to take part in their rallies.

Maoists on Friday told Mahto to send the students to the rally, but he refused. Mahto, a former panchayat pradhan, was the Manikpara circle president of All Bengal Primary Teachers Association and a follower of CPIM

In a show of dissent, some villagers of Radhanagar, five km from Jhargram, refused to take part in a rally held by the Maoists on Friday.

Villagers in the adjacent area of Radhanagar earlier took out rallies to protest the high-handedness of the PCPA and had even drove the Committee members out of the village when they went to Radhanagar to organise them for an anti-joint forces programme, a phenomenon that has heartened the security forces on the dwindling support base of the Maoists in the Jungalmahal area of Bengal.

Maoists also shot dead another local CPM leader in the Balarampur area of the adjacent Purulia district on Friday.

CPIM has asked all peace loving people of the state of protest against the atrocities committed by Maoists with the backing of Mamtha Banarjee.