Gaya, Aug. 21: Six policemen and a Naxalite were killed in a precisely executed ambush in Raniganj village under Imamganj police station, 65km from here, shortly before noon today.

Around mid-afternoon, 12 heavily armed rebels, belonging to CPI(Maoists), attacked the Imamganj police station.

A bystander, Dev Nandan Mahto, resident of a nearby village, was killed during the firing. Four SAP jawans died on the spot, while two others succumbed to their injuries on their way to the Anugrah Naran Magadh Medical College Hospital.

The slain SAP jawans have been identified as Satendra Sharma, Umesh Singh, Ramnath Singh, Samundar Singh and Indrajeet Singh.

Five of the slain personnel were from SAP, a special force comprising former army personnel created by the Nitish Kumar government to combat the red menace, the sixth victim was an assistant sub-inspector, S.N. Singh.

The deputy inspector-general of Magadh range, Praveen Bashist, who was camping in Raniganj confirmed the incident. According to Bashist, the rebels, who had positioned themselves at strategic points near the Raniganj branch of Punjab National Bank, started to fire indiscriminately at the police station, giving the personnel little time to react.

A rebel was also killed in the crossfire.

The personnel were conducting routine checks of the banks.

According to reports, the rebels had attacked a local police outpost in a similar manner. However, the police, as is evident from today’s encounter, did not heed the warning then.

Today, the red army arrived on motorcycles and left one of the vehicles, behind. Police seized the vehicle.

The army also left a hand-written leaflet, stating that the firing was “action against police atrocities”.

Zonal inspector-general of police Sunil Kumar and inspector-general (operations) S.K. Bharadwaj left Patna for the mishap site to monitor the combing operation.

Raniganj is a comparatively big village and the ambush took place in the busy market area during business hours. The rebels managed to make a safe exit from the place.

An equally daredevil daylight attack was mounted on Tekari police station located in a busy centre, a decade ago.

Maoist activity in the district has registered a considerable increase in the recent months in the district. A few days ago, the watchman of a mobile phone company was killed by the rebels at Gurua.

Earlier, the red army blew up a petrol station on the GT Road and used dynamite to blow the house of a villager of Barachatti police station area.

No less than 62 activists and leaders of the JD(U) and BJP had to resign from their respective party posts on the dictat of the Maoist organization. Some of those who resigned were earlier abducted by the ultras.

The rebels also looted five self-loading police rifles.