Three arrested for massacre of 16 people in Bihar

PATNA - Three people were arrested Monday for their alleged involvement in the massacre of 16 people, including five children, in Bihar’s Khagaria district last year, police said.

A Special Task Force team along with the district police arrested Alu Alam, Mohd Zahoor and Devi Lal Sada in Khagaria for allegedly killing 16 people at Amausi village, about 200 km from here, on Oct 2.

Nineteen people had earlier been arrested in the case.

“More arrests will be made soon,” a police official in the district said.

About 50 people are said to have taken part in the slaughter, including nearly two dozen people from Amausi village.

According to the police, while 37 were named in the first information report (FIR), 25 people were listed as unidentified.

Police got vital information from Paro Singh, the lone survivor and witness, who managed to save his life by pretending to be dead after sustaining gunshot injuries.

The brutal killings, in which the hands of the victims were tied before they were gunned down, appeared to be taken place over a land dispute, police said.

All victims belonged to the Kurmi caste and were from Amba Ichwara village, a few kilometres from the spot where the incident took place. The attackers are believed to be from the Sada (Mushahar), a Mahadalit caste in Bihar, considered the poorest of the poor and often landless.

Though the massacre was initially blamed on the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist, the group denied involvement and claimed it “had nothing to do with the incident”.