Jhargram (WB): Four CPI-M supporters were on Thursday shot dead by suspected Maoists and their bodies dumped on the state highway at Belpahari near Lalgarh in West Midnapore district with the ultras threatening to intensify their bloody campaign.
Ashok Ahir, Swapan Ahir, Sanatan Ahir and Nazrul Mir were shot dead from point blank range early today for being 'police informers' and the bodies left on Silda-Bankura road near Anthela village, police said.
The middle-aged CPI-M supporters were picked up from their residences at Chandabila village in nearby Binpur police station by a group of 20 armed Maoist cadre last midnight.
They had been missing since then and the bodies were recovered this morning, members of a team of police and paramilitary forces who reached the spot, said.
The police have seized Maoist literature and posters strewn near the bodies condemning the four as "police informers".
The hand-written posters also revealed that the bloody campaign in Lalgarh and nearby jungle mahal areas will continue until "the arrested Maoist cadre were produced before the court".
Meanwhile, life in the jungle mahal area comprising West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia districts of West Bengal have come to a standstill in a Maoist-sponsored 24-hour bandh from this morning.
Shops, business establishments, offices, schools were closed and no vehicle was seen plying on the roads, the police said.
Earlier this month, Maoists had shot at and seriously injured 50-year-old Alok Mahali, a CPI(M) leader, at Gidhni in West Midnapore district.
Meanwhile, four policemen have been arrested from different districts of Uttar Pradesh on suspicion of being involved in a racket to smuggle arms and ammunition for Maoists, officials said on Friday.
Carrying out a joint operation with the police, the Special Task Force (STF) Thursday arrested the four men from the Provincial Armed Constabulary from Gonda, Faizabad and Gorakhpur districts of Uttar Pradesh.
The four are Sushil Kumar, armourer with the PAC's 30th battalion in Gonda, Jitendra Singh and Amar Singh, both deployed as armourers in Faizabad, and Rajesh Shahi, an armourer with the Gorakhpur police, an official said.
They were held after their names were disclosed by an armourer of Basti district, about 200 km from here, who is being interrogated for his alleged involvement in the racket.
(With inputs from IANS)
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