Two blackbucks have vanished from a deer park that came under attack from Maoist backed peoples’ militia in Jhargram near Lalgarh in West Bengal.

The Maoist-backed People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) set fire to the park and destroyed parts of the 47-acre mini zoo.

The attack was launched on Saturday night as a part of a stepped up action plan of destruction of government property in Bengal and came close on the heels of torching a sponge iron plant nearby.

On 18 December about more than 100 people descended on Reshmi Sponge Iron plant at Salboni near Lalgarh and set fire to the factory and more than a dozen trucks in its premises.

On Saturday, the ultras killed the blackbucks and then carried the carcasses away. They also smashed an aquarium containing rare fish.

Blackbucks are one of the fastest animals and can outrun most predators over long distances.

Found in pockets of India, Pakistan and Nepal, this species of deer is now an endangered animal. It is listed in schedule 1 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.

In September 1998, during the shooting of the film Hum Saath Saath Hain, Bollywood star Salman Khan had shot two blackbucks in Jodhpur, an act that earned him a five-year in prison sentence and a fine in 2006.

The mini zoo has deer, foxes, sloth bears, jungle cats and crocodiles. But no harm has been reported to these animals.

“Now we are scared that all these animals could be under threat,” said Vinod Kumar Yadav, chief conservator of forests, western range.

So far, members of the banned Communist Part of India (Maoist) and PCAPA have destroyed or set fire to seven forest beat offices. But CPI(Maoist) politburo member Kishenji denied their men having anything to do with the attack on the deer park.

“You seem to be so perturbed over the death of black bucks. But why aren’t you asking how two local villagers disappeared after police picked them up from their homes? We are fighting primarily for human lives,” Kishenji said.

The PCAPA is protesting the alleged failure of the government to produce two of their activists, Raju Adak and Jairam Bera, in court though they have been nabbed on 6 December.