Monday, November 14 2005 19:51 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Jehanabad: Nine Ranvir Sena men kidnapped during last night's massive attack by the Communist Party of India (CPI) (Maoists) in Bihar's Jehanabad district were butchered in cold blood with their bodies being discovered today (Nov 14, 2005), as the Centre rushed additional security forces to the state.

An unspecified number of imprisoned Ranvir Sena men were taken away from the district sub jail by over 1000-armed naxalites, who killed four persons during the attack.

District Magistrate Rana Avadhesh told a press conference here that the bodies of three believed to be those of kidnapped men of the Ranvir Sena, a banned militia of upper caste land owners locked in an internecine feud with the naxalites for over a decade, were recovered from the railway track near the jail.

Bodies of five other Sena men were found near the railway station at Belagang in adjoining Gaya district, he said.

During last night's attack a sentry, a warder and a Ranvir Sena leader Bade Sharma were gunned down at the overcrowded sub-jail, he said.

Union minister of state for Home Sri Prakash Jaiswal said in New Delhi that additional central paramilitary forces had been rushed to Jehanabad and the situation there was now under control.

Jaiswal said that paramilitary forces from nearby areas have been rushed to Jehanabad. "The situation is now under control.

"The district authorities have asked for 20 more battalions which we hope to provide soon," the minister said acknowledging that there were only eight to ten men at the prison when the CPI-Maoists stormed it last night.

"The main reason is that almost the entire force guarding the jail had been deployed for poll duty," he said.

The district magistrate said that while four, including two warders, a havaldar and a cook injured in the attack on the jail were admitted to the Sadar hospital, two others were rushed to the Patna Medical College Hospital in a serious condition, he said.

The district magistrate claimed an injured naxalite Manoj Kandu, who was wounded in retaliatory fire by the police, had given 'vital clues' about the meticulously planned and daringly executed attack.

He, however, refused to share the information. He said 10 mine devices packed in tin containers, which could be detonated by remote control, were found from the collectorate, railway tracks, Police Lines, which was also attacked last night and the jail.

He said dreaded naxalite leaders Ajay Kanu alias Ravi and Murali, who were prisoners at the jail and plotted the entire operation, had escaped.