Purulia, West Bengal, Dec 17: Maoists today shot dead seven Forward Bloc workers at Jhalda in Purulia district on suspicion that they acted as police informers.
All seven between the age group of 40 to 50 years, were picked up from their homes at about two AM and shot from close range in a field at hilly Baghbinda village in Jhalda bordering Jharkhand, Superintendent of Police Sunil Kumar Chaudhuri said.
The seven have been identified as Chapala Garai, Tapan Singh Sardar, Kinkar Singh, Rajesh Singh, Gopeswar Mahato Gobardhan Singh and Arjun Singh Mura.
The police has found posters left by the Maoists at the spot that claim that the five villagers had been spying for the security personnel.
The bodies have been sent for postmorterm.
Forward Bloc state secretary Ashok Ghosh condemning the incident said Chapala Garai was the pradhan of Darda gram panchayat.
Ghosh accused the police of being inactive when the Maoists launched the attack and alleged it was carried out to take revenge for the anti-Maoist operation backed by the LF government.
Calling upon people in West Bengal to protest against the heinous attack, Ghosh said the Left parties have called a bandh in Purulia district tomorrow.
Another Forward Bloc leader Naren Chatterjee said that those who were saying that there were no Maoists in the state should realise after this incident how the ultras had become a threat to the innocent people.
''If there is any injustice against them, that could be sorted out through discussion and not through violence,'' Chatterjee said.
Senior party leader and state's agriculture minister Naren De and food and supply minister Paresh Adhikari have rushed to the spot. PTI
