The Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Thursday met relatives of the seven villagers brutally killed by the armed supporters of "Pathalgarhi" movement in West Singhbhum district, and assured them all possible assistance from the state government. Soren, who has directed to set up a special investigation team to get to the bottom of the incident soon after the bodies were recovered from a forest near Burugulikera village, over 175 km from capital Ranchi,on Wednesday, called upon the villagers not to take the law in their hands.

"The guilty will be punished. Those who tried to create fear have failed. The district administration has been asked to give fool-proof security to the villagers," the chief minister told reporters after meeting the villagers during his two-hour stay there. Pathalgarhi is a name given to a tribal protest which seeks autonomy for village sabhas (Gram sabhas).The proponents of Pathalgarhi want no laws of the land be applicable on the tribal people in the area.They reject government rights over their forests and rivers.

As part of the movement, Pathalgarhis erect a stone plaque or signboard outside the village/area, declaring it as sovereign territory and prohibiting entry of the outsiders. The movement, prevalent across four districts of Khunti, Gumla, Simdega and West Singhbhum, all of them Maoist-infested areas, had hit the national headlines in the middle of 2019.

On June 19, five NGO workers branded as "dikus" (outsiders) were allegedly abducted and gangraped by armed men associated with the Pathalgarhi movement. They were performing a street play at a school in Khunti district when they were targeted. On June 26, another group of armed Pathalgarhis had abducted three security personnel posted at the former BJP MP Karia Munda's home in Khunti. They were released later West Singhbhum Superintendent of Police,Inderjeet Mahata, on Thursday said three persons have been detained for questioning in connection with the sordid event.

The defenders of Pathalgarhi movement, armed with lathis and axes,had kidnapped seven villagers and later killed them following a dispute arising with another set of fellow villagers allegedly opposing their stir. Civil Surgeon Manju Dubey said a team of five doctors conducted the post-mortem examination on the seven bodies at Chakradharpur in the district.

The SP had on Wednesday said that the bodies were badly mutilated with heads of all the seven had been severed by the perpetrators and scattered in the forest. The police personnel brought the bodies shouldering them on bamboos, he added.

According to villagers, there was a meeting of gram sabha a couple of days back in which the pro-Pathalgarhi men asked the villagers to submit ration cards. But nine of them refused to submit. The supporters of Pathalgarhi started beating them with two men managing to escape and are traceless till now.

The seven persons were thrashed, dragged into the forest and killed with the help of lathis and axes before severing their heads, the villagers told the police. "Only after investigation things will be clearer," said the SP.

Soon after being sworn in as the chief minister on December 29 last, Hemant Soren had announced his decision to withdraw all sedition cases registered during the Pathalgarhi movement and protests against the amendments to Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (CNT Act) and Santhal Paragana Tenancy Act (SPT Act). The BJP has attacked the government over the incident coming shortly after JMM-Congress-RJD coalition assumed power in the state in December end.

The new BJP national president J P Nadda has set up a six-member party team to visit the place and submit a report within a week..