10 burnt alive in Uttar Pradesh village over chief?s murder

Lucknow : Ten people, including five children, were burnt to death in Digahi village located in Maharajganj district of Uttar Pradesh by the supporters of a village chief who was shot dead on Friday morning.

The massacre that has shocked all occurred 350 kms from Lucknow after Dina Nath Singh, the gram pradhan of Dighai village, was shot dead at around 9:30 am when he was returning from a panchayat meeting.

The attackers also cut the village chief?s neck to make sure he was dead.

Agitated supporters of Singh decided to avenge his death by setting ablaze the houses of those apparently involved in the incident.

For five hours chaos reigned on the village with allegedly no sign of the police as five children, three women and two men burnt to death and three more were injured.

Officials say when the police tried to control the situation, stones were pelted at them and they were prevented from entering the village.

The reason for Singh?s killing is being said to have been a land dispute. The village chief had bought over a piece of land from a woman that was under the possession of another man leading to conflict, reports said.

An attempt to resolve the conflict on Mar 6 by Tuthibari police station in-charge failed and authorities have charged four people Ayodhya Dubey, Dwarika Dubey, Krishna Kumar Dubey and Dhirendra Dubey for the Singh?s killing.