The primary school at Salboni whose headmaster was killed by suspected Maoists on Saturday. (Samir Mondal)

Midnapore, Sept. 4: Suspected Maoists today dragged a headmaster out of his school in Jhargram and shot him dead in front of students and teachers, on the eve of Teacher’s Day.

Police said Dibakar Mahato, 52, the headmaster of a primary school in Salboni, was teaching math to Class III students when three motorcycle-borne youths called him out around 11.30am. “They addressed him as ‘Dibakar sir’,” one of the 30 students in the classroom said.

A police officer said that as soon as Mahato came out, the youths “caught him by the collar and dragged him to the Lodhasuli-Jhargram state highway, around 60 metres away”.

“Then one of the youths shot him in the head with a revolver. Within five minutes, the youths sped off on their bikes, leaving Mahato in a pool of blood,” the officer said.

The officer said Mahato was killed because he was a member of the CPM’s Aguibani local committee in Jhagram.

The teachers and around 120 students rushed out of the school as the Maoists dragged Mahato to the highway. Local people also gathered at the spot after the students and teachers shouted for help as the youths sped off.

The headmaster’s body lay on the highway until a joint forces’ team from the Jitusole police outpost, about 3km away, arrived half an hour after the murder and took it to Jhargram subdivisional hospital.

The teachers and students said they were too “stunned” to know what to do and so did not take Mahato to hospital immediately after he was “shot in front of our eyes”. The school closed for the day after the murder and parents escorted the children back to their homes. Most of the students were too traumatised to speak. “Please don’t ask my son anything,” said a woman.

West Midnapore police chief Manoj Verma said the Maoists had murdered Mahato. “Going by the gory nature of the killing, we are convinced that it is the handiwork of the Maoists. We are searching for the killers,” he said.

Mahato is survived by his wife Sandhya, a librarian, and son, an engineering student.

Another teacher, of a primary school at Kalabani, around 9km from Salboni, has been missing since Thursday.

The police suspect that Fulmani Mandi, 30, also a member of the CPM’s Aguibani local committee, has been abducted by the Maoists.