Jawans of paramilitary force guard Baguria Middle School. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Galudih, March 9: Four days since Jamshedpur MP Sunil Mahto was shot down reportedly by the Maoists, fear writ large on the face of Baguria village and neighbouring Kesharpur panchayat areas.

Children have stopped going to school, the weekly haat has had thin crowd and the road from Galudih to Narsinghpur via Kesharpur wear a deserted look.

JMM leader and MP Sunil Mahto had been gunned down suspectedly by Maoists at Baguria in the evening of March 4, when he was witnessing a football tournament as chief guest. Three others, including two of his bodyguards also fell to the rebels’ bullets.

The repercussion of Baguria bloodshed took its toll the most on the schools falling under the Kesharpur panchayat. Since yesterday, Baguria Middle School has partially been turned into a camp for paramilitary forces that are on anti-insurgency operation in the Bengal-Jharkhand border.

Children have stopped turning up to the school. It is same at Narsinghpur Middle School, the football ground beside which blood was spilt. “Of the 299 students, only five turned up yesterday. That, too, all the girls who live bordering the school premises. No student had come the day before,” said Ramkrishna Shah, headmaster of Baguria School.

“I made them sit in a room in my office and let them go after an hour of studies,” he said. He is worried that “the annual exam begins from March 19, and if students miss class, then teachers have to be sent to their houses to convince them to attend classes.”

Similar was the condition of Kesharpur weekly haat today, as a very thinly crowd was seen. Most of those who regularly turn up to the haat for selling goods preferred not to venture out in apprehension of an unseen fear in the backdrop of March 4 incident at Baguria.

A vendor, while talking to The Telegraph, said: “The Kesharpur haat is famous as people from bordering West Midnapore district in Bengal also drop in for brisk business. Today, the weekly haat is bereft of its usual charm.”

Another resident said the people did not turn up as they were no more interested to stay at Kesharpur till evening. “The time has changed now,” said the villagers.

The commuters on the Galudih-Kesharpur-Narsinghpur-Kuchia route, too, are facing hardship, as only a few mini-buses and trekkers are plying on the route, and that too up to Narsinghpur only.

The police are, however, yet to make any breakthrough in the Sunil Mahto murder. A team of CID, led by a deputy superintendent of police-level officer, was busy inquiring people in Baguria.

The sleuths are giving emphasis on some photographs published in a section of local vernacular dailies with glimpses of Naxalites sitting at a row while the football match was on.