Hundreds of heavily armed Maoist guerillas stormed a jail in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, killing at least four people and freeing about 350 prisoners, including many fellow guerrillas. The rebels entered Jehanabad town the night of Nov. 13 in small groups, cut off power and raided the prison in one of the biggest-ever attacks by Maoist guerrillas.
The rebels, who were estimated to number 700, killed a prison guard and a member of Ranvir Sena [1] (a paramilitary group run by local landowners). The guerrillas also abducted at least two dozen members of the Ranvir Sena. "It is the biggest-ever attack in Bihar and it is for the first time that the heart of a town was taken over by Maoists," a federal police officer said. (Reuters via Pakistan Daily Times [2], Nov. 15)
See our last post [3] on India, and its long-simmering Maoist insurgency [4].
