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Ethnic Clash Kills Several People |
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June 13, 2000
PATNA, India, JUNE 12 (AP) - Attackers armed with guns raided a village in eastern India, shooting and killing at least 10 people who were considered members of the upper caste, police said Monday.
United News of India news agency said 12 people were killed and another five were wounded in the attack Sunday night.
Communist guerillas were suspected of carrying out the attack in the village of Assar, killing the victims in their sleep, said K.A. Jacob, the director-general of police in the eastern state of Bihar.
No group claimed responsibility for the killings. But police said the massacre was likely in retaliation for the killings of five people earlier this month in the same district, Nawada, located nearly 150 kilometers (95 miles) south of Patna, the state capital.
The five victims of the earlier attack in the village of Rajebigha were considered to be members of a lower caste.
About 83 percent of India's one billion people are believers of Hinduism, which classifies its people into a social hierarchy of castes.
The latest massacre was the seventh major caste-related attack in the in the past six months in Bihar, which is considered to be India's poorest and most lawless state.
Police say they believe communist rebels championing lower-caste Hindus and a private militia of upper-caste Hindus are involved in tit-for-tat attacks. |