Raghubar Lodh from Pipara in Kapilbastu had gone to Mumbai to work so he could support his wife, Inarmati, and three children. The 25-year-old returned home two weeks ago on leave. At 10PM on 17 June, a group of Maoists came into his house and shot him dead. Hundreds of armed Maoists surrounded the village and then went from house to house.

They burst into the home of former chairman of Pipara VDC, Mohamad Musalman, and shot Musalman's son, Mustafa, twice in the head. "We were on the roof with the whole family, and came down when it started to rain," Musalman recalls. "Suddenly we heard gunfire nearby, then some Maoists came in and dragged my son away and we heard two shots."

The same group went to the house of Mohammad Wakil, father of eight, lead him out to the front lawn and shot him dead. They also killed Gobardhan Lodh and Pradip Chaudhary.

In a statement the next day, the local Maoist command said the five killed in Pipara were members of a resistance committee and among the dead was the group's leader, Pritam Pandey. However, Pandey is alive and told us in a telephone interview this week that only Pradip Chaudhary was a member of his anti-Maoist committee.

Pritam Pandey set up the 75-member resistance committee after villagers here got "fed up" with Maoist extortion and threats. In an interview before this week's attack he boasted that he would shoot any Maoist "on the spot". Pandey is regarded by some as a gangster, which he vehemently denies (see box). But it is clear that his armed anti-Maoist resistance group is similar to the Ranvir Sena set up by landowners and high caste villagers to fight Indian Maoists in Bihar.

Pandey claims to be training and arming 500 young supporters and says he has help from Indian politicians. "We have received help from Kamaruddin Khan and Uttar Pradesh Labour Minister Mata Prasad Pandey," he told us. "We are even holding talks with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav."

The Indian police dismissed these claims: "Pandey has 22 criminal cases registered in our country, how can we help such a criminal?" Pritam Pandey used to be known as a notorious dcoit who called himself Sukhi Nath Pandey during the Panchayat era. After 1990, he joined the Nepali Congress and used his political connections in Kathmandu to widen his influence. Pandey does not hide his past. "Temple priests can't defy the Maoists. It takes people like us to do that," he says.

Pandey says the villagers killed in Pipara last week were murdered in cold blood. Superintendent of police at Taulihawa, Lok Bahadur Karki, says the wounds on all five look like they were from guns fired at close range. Says Pandey: "The Maoists have shown their cowardice by killing innocent villagers, they will pay for this."

Pandey survived a Maoist assassination attempt six months ago and in the last month the group has already killed three rebels in retaliation. The father of Chetan Kurmi, one of the Maoists killed said a large sum of money was stolen from his son. "I asked them to kill me instead, but they shot him," the bereaved father said. The Maoist Resistance Group tried to kill Rajendra Tiwari, chief of Madheshi Liberation Front in Kapilbastu last month. The rebels responded by bombing six places in and around Labeni village two weeks ago. Maoist Saroj Sharma said he would not spare anyone who defied the rebels.

Kapilbastu villagers fear the violence will escalate. A local school headmaster told us, "No one dares leave their houses anymore."

"I'm not a dacoit"

At about the time the Maoists were issuing a statement on Sunday that they had killed Pritam Pandey and six others in Pipara, an angry Pandey was giving us a phone interview. "They will never get me," he shouted, "they should go after the bandits who are sucking the villagers dry." He continued: "We have nothing against the Maoists, we are against khaobadis who rob the people. Why are they protecting the robbers?" Pritam Pandey had fled to India with his gunmen after receiving information that the Maoists were targeting him. "We will exact revenge for the killings," he vowed. "We are preparing to launch an even more terrible attack against them." Pritam Pandey claims to have AK47s, shot guns and a whole lot of bombs. He also says he can easily buy more assault rifles in India. "These murders will make us stronger. They will give birth to hundreds of anti-Maoist supporters," he added, warning journalists not to call him a dacoit.