India: 11 killed as rebels free 300 inmates

Suspected Maoist rebels freed more than 300 prisoners in an dramatic overnight raid on an Indian jail that left 11 people dead and triggered a protest today by the inmates’ relatives who were beaten back by club-wielding police.

About 500 rebels, many of them dressed in police uniforms and armed with guns, petrol bombs and explosives, stormed the jail in Jehanabad town in Bihar state last night, killing a guard and two prisoners, said Ashish Ranjan Sinha, Bihar’s police chief.

The rebels also kidnapped 20 inmates belonging to a private militia of local landlords, five of whom were killed, he said. Their bullet-riddled bodies were found near railway tracks 30 miles from Jehanabad. The fate of the remaining members of the militia, the Ranvir Sena, was not immediately known.

Sinha said three Maoist were also killed during a gunbattle with guards inside the prison.

Today, angry relatives of the escaped inmates surrounded the jail seeking information, but were beaten back by police. Television channels showed several press photographrs being severely beaten by police armed with bamboo canes.

Sinha said the rebels fled after freeing more than 300 prisoners, many of them fellow insurgents, and took away a large number of guns and ammunition.

Among those who escaped was a rebel commander, Ajay Kanu, said Rana Awadesh, the top administrator of Jehanabad district. Jehaabad is 18 miles south of Patna, the capital of Bihar, generally acknowledged as the most lawless state in India.

The rebel attack came at a time when thousands of police and paramilitary soldiers were on duty in Bihar to provide security for state legislative elections held in parts of the state yesterday.

“They took advantage of the fact that most security forces were on guard duty at polling stations yesterday,” said AS Nimbran, an inspector general of police in Patna.

The Maoist rebels, who have been fighting government forces to defend the rights of poor farmers and landless workers, often clash with private militias recruited by landlords to put down protests by landless peasants and workers demanding wages and other rights.

The rebels claim to be inspired by Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong and are active in eastern and south-eastern India.