The committee, formed by the CPM to thwart the attacks of the Maoists, has been the target of the leftwing extremists over a period of time.
Police said the dead were forcibly taken away from their houses on Friday night to a nearby forest where their hands were tied up and a number of bullets pumped into their bodies. They died on the spot.
The trio belonged to the Jharkhand Jana Mukti Morcha and later joined the committee and led movements against the Maoists.
Local villagers first spotted the bodies lying in a pool of blood on the road.
A Maoist poster was found near the bodies in the forest near Dahijuri in which the ultras claimed responsibility for the killing. The deceased, the rebels alleged, used to extract money forcibly from the local villagers. Police brought the bodies to the nearby Binpur police station from where they were sent to Jhargram Hospital for postmortem.
Two-day visit
Meanwhile, the chief minister reached Midnapore town in the afternoon on his two-day visit to attend a high-level meeting with the district administration and police officials to review the law and order situation.
A security blanket has been thrown around the entire town as a precautionary measure.
Notwithstanding this, the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities organised road blockades in different areas of the Jungle Mahal since Saturday morning, demanding immediate withdrawal of the combined security forces.
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