Masaurhi, May 30 :    Masaurhi, May 30:  In a revenge killing by a former cadre of the People's War Group (PWG) late last night, six members of a family, including five children, were mercilessly shot dead, pushing the Bihar backwaters to the brink of mass hysteria. Thousands of grieving, angry villagers in Masaurhi came out to squat on the streets today as a mark of protest. They refused to let the bodies be removed till chief minister Rabri Devi came to the spot and announced adequate compensation to the next of the kin of the deceased. 'The web of violence has begun to involve everyone now, it has gone beyond caste hatred. Since violence is a way of life, people are driven to kill despite their caste affinities however trifle might be the provocation,' said Bihar additional director general of police A.R. Sinha. According to the police, a heavily-armed gang of 10 raided the house of Sadhu Saran Singh in Lakhnaur area, about 10 km from Bhagwangunge area of Masaurhi block in Patna district, around midnight yesterday, looking for the head of the family. Unable to find him, the killers took the women and children, tied their hands behind their back and shot them from point blank range. One of the six victims was a 35-year-old woman identified as Tetri Devi. The rest were all between two and seven. The children were fast sleep when the gang struck. They have been identified as Narendra Kumar, 7, Namita Kumari, 5, Tun Tun Kumari, 6, Shivani Kumari, 4, and Kavita Kumari, two and-a-half. Before leaving the area, the gang exploded bombs to scare away the villagers. The police said the killing had nothing to do with extremist-related violence because the killers had not left behind any propaganda material. The victims belonged to the Yadav caste. Bhagwangunge became a hotbed of violence in the wake of the 1999 polls when various factions of the PWG and the MCC fought among themselves in the bloodiest turf battle seen in these parts. There were at least 40 deaths in a series of clashes in a span of two months as the militants carved out the Bhagwangunge area among themselves. According to the police, many of the local Naxalites, anti-socials once, were expelled and become gangsters. Sunil Yadav, suspected to be the massacre mastermind, was a member of the PWG and a relative of Jaynandan Yadav, the PWG area commander who was killed in a police encounter.