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Ranvir Sena kills 34 in Bihar

Soroor Ahmed in Patna

About 34 Yadav men, women and children were killed by the Ranvir Sena, the private army of Bhumihars, in Miapur village, Aurangabad district, at about 2100 hours Friday. At least 25 were injured.

The upper caste Bhumihars carried out the attack in retaliation against the killing of 13 of their men by backward caste Kurmis, in Afsar village, Nawada district. Instead of targeting the Kurmis, they attacked the Yadavs as they are the ruling caste in the state.

According to the sub-divisional officer of Aurangabad, about 200 armed Bhumihars swooped down on the village and surrounded it. They then separated the Yadavs, lined them up and gunned them down.

The massacre has nothing to do with the Nawada killing last week. Though both are in central Bihar, the distance between the two places is about 300 kilometres.

The Kurmis killed the Bhumihars of Afsar as it was from that village that the attackers came to kill three Kurmis a few days back.

The Ranvir Sena is against the Rashtriya Janata Dal and does not want to open a front against the Kurmis, as the Bhumihars and Kurmis form the Samata Party backbone in central Bihar.

In fact, Ranvir Sena chief Barmeshwar Singh went to Afsar last week and met Akhilesh Singh and his wife Aruna Devi, a legislator, and tried to persuade them not to antagonise the Kurmis. However, they refused to accept his plea.

Akhilesh is a Bhumihar ganglord but is not associated with the Ranvir Sena. It was because of his activities in Nawada and Nalanda districts that Kurmis have become sworn enemies of the Bhumihars.

The Ranvir Sena wanted a truce between the Kurmis and Bhumihars as the enmity will harm them politically.

To divert attention from the Nawada-Nalanda front, they struck at Yadav village, to send the message to the Bhumihars that their real enemies were the Yadavs.

The Yadavs have not retaliated against the killing of six of their men in Rajobigha by Bhumihars.

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