Suspected Naxal rebels kill school headmaster in eastern India

The Indian extreme left- wing Naxal rebels Saturday killed the headmaster of a school here for not allowing his students to take part in a rally in West Midnapore district of West Bengal, eastern India.

According to sources in police here, six suspected rebels who came on three motorbikes dragged headmaster of Indrabani Primary School Rabindranath Mahto in front of the school building. They then hacked him with an axe before shooting him from close range.

Police said that another teacher Shyamlal Mandi was also present there. He, however, was spared by the Naxal guerrillas.

The rebels Friday told Mahto to send the students to the rally but he refused.

Mahto was the Manikpara circle president of All Bengal Primary Teachers Association, the primary teachers' wing of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) st Bengal.

Villagers in the adjacent area of Radhanagar earlier took out rallies to protest the high-handedness of the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCPA) - the body supportive of rebels.

They even drove the Committee members out of the village when they went to Radhanagar to organize them for an anti-joint forces program.

Also suspected Naxal rebels shot dead another local CPM leader in the Balarampur area of the adjacent Purulia district Friday.

Source: Xinhua