[BERHAMPUR, February 24] Seven “extremist” prisoners were killed and 60 others, including 15 wardens, sustained injuries in a clash inside Berhampur central jail to-day. The condition of one, the head warden, is stated to be critical. Seventeen of the 48 injured naxalites and all the 15 injured wardens have been admitted to hospital. A nine-and-a-half hour curfew was clamped on the municipal area of Berhampur town from 19-30 hours to-day to 05-00 hours to-morrow as a precautionary measure. The District Magistrate of Murshidabad, Ashok Chatterjee, told UNI that the trouble started when a naxalite prisoner suddenly fell upon the head warden and stabbed him with a spring dagger which the extremists had apparently smuggled in. This was a signal for other naxalites to attack, some naxalites started dragging a jail employee into their ward and others armed with iron rods and lathis beat up the wardens. They had torn away the iron rods from the fences inside the jail walls. Naxalites similarly rioted in Midnapore central jail twice in recent weeks, about 20 naxalites escaped from prison in Siliguri on February 21.
