Maoists in Bihar have threatened to chop off the hands of voters who defy a call to boycott elections this month, the state police chief and residents said, citing posters appearing in public places. The Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of poor farmers and landless labourers, and have killed thousands of people since the start of the armed movement in the late 1960s."Anyone going to cast their votes at polling booths will have their hands chopped off", read handwritten pamphlets in Bedani, Baluganj and many other villages of Aurangabad district in eastern Bihar, according to residents. Officials and villagers said many such posters and leaflets have also been pasted on walls and electric poles in villages of at least seven districts in southern Bihar, where Maoists are said to hold sway in this poor, crime-ridden state.
