JEHANABAD, Nov 14: About seven hundred heavily armed Maoist rebels stormed a jail in Bihar on Sunday night, killing two people and freeing about 350 prisoners, including many fellow guerillas. The Indian government rushed federal troops to Bihar on Monday after a request by

the state government, which admitted that the Maoists were in control of Jehanabad town, 50kms south of the capital Patna.

The rebels entered the town in small groups, cut off power and raided the prison in one of the biggest-ever attacks by Maoist guerrillas.

They killed a prison guard and a member of a private army of upper caste landlords in a gunbattle with policemen.

The guerillas also abducted about 20 members of the Ranvir Sena, the private army of upper caste landlords, who were jail inmates.

“It is the biggest-ever attack in Bihar and it is for the first time the heart of a town was taken over by Maoists,” a federal police official said.

The rebels, who operate in eastern and southern India, say they are fighting for the rights of landless labourers and impoverished peasants. In Bihar, they often clash with private armies of landlords. Dozens have been killed in the past decade.

The attack took place on a day when police had been deployed in other parts of Bihar for elections to the state legislature in a month-long process that ends this weekend.

“The main logic for the attack was that our forces were all deployed for the elections,” federal junior Home Minister Sri Prakash Jaiswal said.

CHAOTIC SCENES: Residents of Jehanabad, a town of 80,000 people, recalled a night of terror.

“I heard gunshots and explosions in the night. Then the lights went off. I have never seen anything like this,” school teacher Ranjay Kumar said.

Police and witnesses said the Maoists made announcements during their night-time attack, saying civilians should remain indoors and would not be harmed.—Reuters