Patna, June 13 :     The Rabri Devi government is under mounting pressure to check the soaring crime graph even as it continued to grapple with the new trend of caste violence sponsored by gangsters. A day after the Nawada reprisal massacre, the Congress today threatened to review support if steps were not taken to end the violence. Pradesh Congress president Chandan Bagchi, who visited the carnage site at Afsar village, gave the chief minister a week to check the violence spiral. 'We may be forced to review our decisions to support the government if the trend continues,' Bagchi said. Even as he spoke, a trader was shot dead in Nawada town by unknown assailants. Twelve upper caste Bhumihars were gunned down in the village near Worsaligunge by a group of 50 assailants wearing paramilitary uniform. The killings are believed to be in retaliation against the massacre of six members of two Yadav families last week. The fresh bloodspill has given the National Democratic Alliance another stick to beat the government with. Taking cue from Afsar MLA Aruna Devi's allegation that deputy superintendent of police P.K. Mandal had planned the massacre to please his political masters and that a state minister had instigated the assailants, BJP leader Sarau Rai said: 'The killings have exposed the government's callousness.' The BJP claimed that the minister, Rajballav Yadav, had befriended a backward caste gangster Ashoke Mahato, who is allegedly responsible for a series of murders in Nawada. According to the BJP, the minister got Mahato to unite the Yadav, Dalit and Kurmi gangs in the area to fight the Bhumihars. The minister scoffed at the charge and said the carnage was fallout of the rivalry between Mahato and Akhilesh Singh, the husband of Aruna Devi. 'The origin of the conflict which led to the massacre was something else. It was an effort by the goons to fight a territory war and massacres have become a strategy to terrorise the people,' Rajballav said. The revenge killings have put the government on the backfoot as so far it had to tackle violence triggered by Naxalite groups or by the Ranbir Sena. But the Nawada carnage has shown that gangs are now willing to carry out the killings for a price. 'Even a smalltime gangster is gathering 50 gunmen, donning commando uniforms and eliminating the families of their caste rivals. This trend is disturbing,' said M.K. Singh, inspector-general of police (operations). Agreed state home secretary U.N. Panjiyar. 'The caste killings have now begun to shift locales. From the traditional central districts, they are moving towards the south-central areas. The violence is different from the ones we had seen earlier,' he said. Seething at the carnage, the residents of Afsar refused to let the administration take the bodies for post-mortem. The bodies were cremated later in the day, escorted by six companies of paramilitary forces. Aditya Singh, a Bhumihar Cabinet minister, was despatched by Rabri Devi to the village to hand over Rs 10,000 as compensation to the victims' relatives.