CPI-M’s district leader gunned down in Bengal

KOLKATA - Suspected Maoists shot dead a local Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader inside the party office in West Bengals Birbhum district, police said Friday.

Sasthi Bauri, a member of CPI-M’s Birbhum district committee and Khoirashole panchayat samiti member, was shot dead from point blank range when he was sitting alone inside the zonal party office Thursday night. Some Maoist posters were recovered from the party office, Birbhum police superintendent Humayan Kabir said.

We have initiated investigation into the matter. The Maoist squad operating along the Birbhum-Jharkhand border is suspected to be behind the crime, he added.

Maoists, who are active in three western districts of the state - West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura - have also expended their bases in Birbhum, Murshidabad and Nadia districts.