Naxals set market on fire in Bihar; 4 killed

New Delhi: About 100 Maoists struck again in Bihar on Friday night and set the Ramban bazaar of Sheohar district on fire.

Four people are reported to be killed in the attack.

Meanwhile, Union Home Secretary G.K. Pillai has said that 150,000 policemen are being recruited to build up pressure that will force the ultras to come for talks. The government is prepared for casualties in a long-running and intensifying battle against deep-rooted Maoist insurgents, he affirms.

"It is a long haul. It will take time. Casualties will come. You have allowed Maoists to take deep roots. But we have no doubt that we will defeat them," Pillai told IANS, days after the guerrillas in yet another attack bombed a bus , killing over 30 civilians and special police officers in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, the heart of the leftwing insurgency.

The attack came some 40 days after their deadliest strike left 76 security personnel dead April 6 in the same region of mineral-rich central India where Maoists have grown for decades and claim to be championing the cause of the country's rural dispossessed, including tribal groups that rank among the poorest in the country.