RANCHI, India, 13 March 2007 — Police yesterday arrested eight Maoist extremists in connection with the killing of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MP Sunil Mahto this month, and said their leads point to the rebels’ hand in the murder.

“Till now the evidence which we have collected indicate that the Maoists killed Mahto in revenge for the killing of their cadre in Lango village,” Additional Director General of Police (Crime Investigating Department) R.C Kaithal told IANS.

Those arrested include Ranjan Mahto and Nirmal Mahto, known to be hardcore rebels belonging to the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist.

“We are also investigating the political angle in the murder but till now no evidence of that nature has come to surface,” said Kaithal.

Mahto, a Lok Sabha MP from Jamshedpur, and his bodyguards were attacked Sunday afternoon when he was watching a football match at Narshimgh village near the industrial city of Jamshedpur, around 140 km from here.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and all political parties had condemned the killing.

Maoists are particularly active in Jharkhand and the adjoining state of Chhattishgarh. Yesterday, Chhattishgarh’s Home Minister Ramvichar Netam told its assembly that among the 325 people killed in Maoist violence in the state between April 1 2006 and Feb 4, 2007, 226 were civilians.

Giving a break up of killings during question hour, Netam said that besides 226 civilians, 23 policemen and 76 Maoist militants were killed until Feb. 4 this year during the current fiscal year.

Most of the incidents were reported from the interior belt of hilly Bastar region, comprising the three districts of Dantewada, Kanker and Bastar.

“A total of 548 Maoist violence activities were reported in the state until Feb. 4 this year against 639 such incidents during the whole of 2006,” Netam said in reply to a question from Nandkumar Patel of the opposition Congress party.

“There were a total 351 casualties reported last year. They included 243 civilians, 43 guerrillas and 65 policemen,” the minister said in a written reply.

He said the federal government had deployed 11 battalions of the paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) besides one Mizo and one Nagaland Armed Police (NAP) battalion to combat leftist extremists.

The minister claimed that the state government had spent millions in the current fiscal year on providing compensation and other help to family members of the deceased civilians and policemen.