Seven Maoists, including an accused in MP Sunil Mahato murder case, were killed in two separate encounters in Dumaria block of East Singhbhum in the state.The first encounter took place on Wednesday night after 150 odd members of the Nagrik Suraksha Samiti (NSS) — a body formed by the villagers with tacit support of the police to resist Naxalites — encircled the Maoist squad. “But before we could launch an attack, they fired on us after which we retaliated and killed two of them,” said Ramesh Kiskoo, an NSS member.The dead activists were identified as Bora Melgaundi and Vikas, who was suspected to be involved in the murder of the JMM MP Sunil Mahato last year. The second encounter occurred around the same place on Thursday morning when the police and the CPI (Maoist) cadres reportedly exchanged fire in which five suspected Maoists were killed. None of them have been identified. Shanker Hembrom, chief of the NSS unit in East Singhbhum district who is in the hit list of the CPI (Maoist), said, “Our struggle will continue till extremists were wiped out.”
