Maoists kill four CPI-M workers in West Bengal

KOLKATA - Four Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) workers were shot dead by Maoists in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district and their bodies were found Friday, police said.

Five CPI-M workers were abducted from their homes in Chandavilla village in Jhargram Thursday night by 20-25 heavily armed leftwing insurgents.

“The bodies of four of them were found on Jhilimili road near the West Midnapore-Bankura border,” a police officer told IANS here.

Maoist posters were found nearby. The victims had their hands and legs tied, the officer said.

CPI-M sources said the fifth party worker had returned to the village.

The area is near Silda, where the Maoists gunned down 24 personnel of the Eastern Frontier Rifles in February.

Maoists are active in West Bengal’s three western districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia. The Maoist insurgency began in West Bengal in 1967.