India Maoist militia kills rivals

By Subir Bhaumik
BBC News, Calcutta

A spokesman for the militia said the killings were retaliatory

A Maoist militia in India's West Bengal state have killed two ruling Marxist party supporters, police say.

Activists of the Kanu-Siddhu Militia (formerly the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities or PCPA) also abducted three Marxists, police said.

A militia spokesman said earlier the Marxists had kidnapped one of their members, provoking the backlash.

On Tuesday, the militia stopped India's most prestigious train - the Rajdhani Express - and abducted its driver.

The driver was freed a few hour later. Hundreds of passengers were stranded in the jungle for many hours.

The rebels are fighting for communist rule in a number of Indian states.

More than 6,000 people have died during the rebels' 20-year fight.

'Gruesome'

The three Marxist supporters were kidnapped at gunpoint just after midnight from Arimara in West Midnapore district, police said.

They also blamed the militia for the gruesome killings of two Marxist functionaries - Tapan Mudi and Dilip Mahato - in the same area.

Militia chief Asit Mahato said that the kidnappings had taken place because "Marxist gangsters" had kidnapped one of their supporters from Pejkona village on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, members of the militia stormed into the Rajdhani Express train and abducted the driver.

A militia spokesman said that the train had not been allowed to proceed because an indefinite strike had been called to protest about alleged police atrocities against tribes people in West Bengal's Junglemahal region, where security forces launched a huge offensive against the Maoists in June.

Although the strike was called off on Wednesday, they said they would continue to campaign for the release of their leader Chatradhar Mahato, who is in police custody.

The tribes people-dominated Lalgarh area in West Bengal's West Midnapore district has been a centre of the rebel activity since November.

In recent months villagers backed by the rebels have burnt down and demolished offices belonging to the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M).