Four Communist Party of India (Marxist) supporters and a party worker were on Friday shot dead by Maoists after they suspected them to be police informers and their bodies dumped on the highway at West Midnapore and Purulia districts, police said.
Ashok Ahir, Swapan Ahir, Sanatan Ahir and Nazrul Mir were shot dead from point blank range early Friday for being “police informers” and the bodies left on Silda-Bankura road at Belpahari area near Lalgarh, police said.
The middle-aged CPI(M) supporters were picked up from their residences at Chandabila village in Binpur area by a group of 20 armed Maoist cadre last midnight.
They had been missing since then and the bodies were recovered on friday morning, members of a team of police and paramilitary forces who reached the spot said.
In a separate Maoist attack at Pathardihi village in Arsha area in Purulia district, a 55-year-old CPI(M) worker identified as Srikanta Mahato was shot dead after he was picked up from his residence last midnight.
His bullet-riddled body was on Friday found lying in a jungle near the village bordering Jharkhand.
According to police, Maoist literature and posters found strewn near the bodies condemned them as “police informers“.
