Suspected Hindu gunmen in eastern India dragged five members of a Muslim family from their beds and shot them, in apparent retaliation for communal killings at the weekend, police said Tuesday.
The police chief of Bihar state, K.A. Jacob, said the latest attack occurred Monday night in a remote village in Siwan district, 170 kilometers (100 miles) northwest of the state capital Patna.
As well as the family of five, one other Muslim villager was gunned down.
"We are treating the incident as a retaliatory attack for the killing of 11 Hindu villagers in Siwan three nights before," Jacob said.
The violence stems from a long-standing property dispute between rival followers of an ancient poet cum-religious cult leader, Sant Kabir, who has devotees in both the Hindu and the Muslim communities.
Local residents say the dispute had already resulted in 30 deaths before the latest spate of killings.
Security reinforcements were rushed to Siwan on Saturday as the first attack sparked off Hindu-Muslim tensions in the area.
Bihar is prone to communal and caste conflicts.
Clashes between private militias operated by upper-caste landlords and Maoist guerrillas have left more than 500 people dead there over the past two years – PATNA (AFP)
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