Five villagers have been shot dead by suspected Maoists in eastern India, a day after the left-wing rebels killed 18 people, including a former minister’s son, in an ambush, police said Sunday.“Five civilians were killed in Boda village by Maoist rebels levelling charges that they were police informers and involved in coal smuggling,” Rajiv Kumar Mallik, police spokesman for mineral-rich Jharkhand state, told AFP. “They were first abducted on Saturday night.” Villagers spotted the bodies in a forested area near their village some 120 kilometres west of state capital Ranchi.
The deaths come a day after 18 people, including the son of a former chief minister, were killed while watching a cultural performance organised by the politicianÂ’s family in another remote village in the state. About 16 of the stateÂ’s 19 districts are facing a Maoist rebellion that officials say has spread to half of IndiaÂ’s 29 states.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described the rebels as the single biggest threat to IndiaÂ’s internal security. The Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of neglected tribal people and landless farmers.