New Delhi - Suspected Maoist rebels gunned down 16 villagers, including five children, in a midnight attack in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, police said Friday. A group of at least 100 people, suspected to be Maoists and armed with automatic weapons, attacked Amosi Bharen Diara village in Bihar's Khagaria district, about 200 kilometres north-east of the state capital Patna, Inspector General of police SK Bharadwaj said.
The attackers, according to witnesses, dragged sleeping villagers out of their homes, tied their hands and legs and fired at them at close range, the police said.
Eleven men and five children died on the spot.
The attack appeared to stem from a land dispute between two groups in the village and one group may have enlisted the help of the Maoists, NDTV television reported.
Most of the victims belong to a lower caste of India's archaic social hierarchy-based caste system. They were all lower caste farmers and farm labourers, the police said.
The police said the attack came after the villagers disobeyed a Maoist ruling forbidding them to cultivate disputed farmland.
Bihar Police chief Anand Shankar said investigations were ongoing and police reinforcements had been rushed to the area for search operations.
NDTV reported that 10 men had been arrested in connection with the incident but this could not be confirmed.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar announced compensation of 100,000 rupees (about 2087 dollars) for the families of each victim.
According to latest government data, Maoist rebels are active in 20 of India's 28 states in a "red corridor" stretching from the border with Nepal down to southern Andhra Pradesh state.
Most of the zones where Maoists are active are in poorly developed forest areas inhabited by indigenous tribal people.
While 721 people were reported killed in Maoist violence in 2008, 580 killings have been reported from January to August this year, according to Home Ministry figures.
The rebels claim they are fighting for the rights of landless, poor and tribal people and are inspired by the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently said that India has not achieved much success in containing left-wing extremism and it remained the gravest internal security threat to the country.
