The men were summoned out, their hands and feet tied, their heads axed.As Union Ministers George Fernandes, Nitish Kumar and Yashwant Sinha flew into this village, some 120 km from Patna, all they heard were cries of anguish and pain. The dead included three children, their bodies were the first ones on the dirt track leading to the village.

These children, all less than 15 years of age, were apparently trying to flee when they were caught and hacked, police said. Those killed included a local bank manager, and a 22-year-old newly married youth. His widow, barely out of her teens, lay crying next to his body.

The 34 bodies just lay there in the fields, blood caked. The families wept close to the bodies, not permitting the police to take them. Later, the post-mortem wasconducted at the spot itself.

Three police pickets were in the vicinity, the closest just over 1 km away with 20 armed personnel, admits Inspector General of Police Neel Mani.

Police, however, claim that the attackers ``engaged'' them in a staged encounter but not many villagers believe this. Fernandes said it was ironical that not one policeman or any assailant was injured. Angry villagers shouted slogans against Sonia Gandhi for supporting the Laloo-Rabri Government which the villagers said was the culprit. They appealed to Fernandes: ``You are the Defence Minister. Please defend us or give us weapons.''

``My son was not in the Ranabir Sena. He was a school student in class VII. They killed him. He had just gone to call his father home for dinner,'' wailed Usha Devi.

Eyewitnesses said the killers, suspected MCC men surrounded the village around 7.30 pm minutes after the PM's television interview. They were in police uniform and asked all the menfolk to come out of their homes before theraid.

``As the men came out their hands and feet were tied so that they could not run back and then their heads were chopped off with an axe. The MCC men then moved forward to another point where they killed more people. In one house the men did not come out so here the MCC men blasted the door and the walls of the house with dynamite, pulled them out and hacked them,'' Nitish Kumar said.

`` Hum tohar dard janat hain (I understand your pain,'' said Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha talking to a young man who lost his father. ``lekin hum ka kari? (But what do I do?),'' he said explaining to the villagers that the BJP-Samata combine did its best to bring down the Rabri government but the Congress let it down.

``Imagine such is the audacity of the killers that they put four posters in the village claiming responsibility and warning people not to side with Ranabir Sena,'' Sinha said.