Five children and an adult have been killed by an armed gang in a village in India's eastern Bihar state.
The six were killed overnight in Masaurhi, east of Patna, the capital of Bihar. The children were between the ages of two and seven.
The area is notorious for its long-running conflict between lower- and upper-caste Hindus.
A police spokesman said he suspected the involvement of a gang of former rebels of the People's War Group, armed communists who have been fighting police, upper-caste Hindu militia and landlords for years.
In many regions of India, members of higher castes continue to discriminate against "untouchables," also called Dalits.
Violence often breaks out when the Dalits attempt to claim their rights to vote, send their children to school, seek political office or refuse to work without being paid. More than 5,000 people have been killed in the past decade over caste-related disputes in the state of Bihar.
AP