MOTIHARI: Six people belonging to a backward caste were massacred and their bodies thrown into a river near Mankarwa-Noniatoli village in Bihar's east Champaran district on Wednesday, police said.

DIG (Champaran range) C.R. Kaswan said that the bodies were yet to be recovered and divers had been pressed into service to locate them.

He said that nine villagers of Mankarwa-Noniatoli were kidnapped by armed miscreants late on Tuesday night and were taken to dense forests in Givindganj police station limits.

Three of those abducted managed to give the captors a slip and informed the police that the six hostages had been killed.

Kaswan said that intensive raids were on to apprehend the culprits allegedly belonging to the 'jungle party', a conglomerate dacoit gang, operating in west Champaran, east Champaran and Gopalganj districts bordering Uttar Pradesh and Nepal. The exact reason behind the killings was however, yet to be ascertained. (PTI)