Kolkata: Maoist rebels abducted and gunned down three members of the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in a forest in West Bengal on Wednesday, police said.
The killings followed last Saturday's arrest of a powerful tribal leader with alleged Maoist links in the trouble-torn Lalgarh area of the state where police were fighting the advancing rebels since June this year.
"We recovered the bodies of the three Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) men from West Midnapore's Ranja forest. A combing operation against the rebels has been mounted," Manoj Verma, a senior police official, said by phone.
The victims were kidnapped on Tuesday from a village in Salboni where JSW Steel Ltd, the country's third largest steel producer, is setting up a $7 billion, 10-million tonne steel plant.
The Maoist rebels began fresh strikes in the area, about four hours' drive from Kolkata, after Chhatradhar Mahato, a tribal leader resisting police action in Lalgarh, was arrested by cops posing as journalists.
A 48-hour strike from Wednesday morning has been called in the region by the rebels.
Maoists, who say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and landless labourers, are expanding their influence in east, central and southern India.
Thousands have been killed in the insurgency which began in the late 1960s and which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described as a grave threat to India's internal security.
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