Within a day of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s warning that the government won’t be a ‘silent spectator’ to extortion and murders by Maoists in several states, ‘Red Rebels’ struck at various places in Jharkhand.
Suspected Maoists killed two senior officials of a coal mine near Dhanbad.
At some other places, Maoists blew up a railway track and culverts, snapped railway power lines, torched trucks and fired gunshots at buses on the first day of the two-day bandh called by them in several states, including Bihar, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Though Ranchi was not affected by the strike, the other parts of Jharkhand saw deserted highways with no public transport vehicles plying.
The effect of the strike was most pronounced in the eastern region of the state. In Pakor district, two senior coal mine officials — D. Sharan and Sheetal Prashad — were gunned down by suspected Naxals while they were taking a morning walk. “The investigations are being carried out. We are not ruling out the possibility of involvement of the local extortion mafia in the incident,” said the police authorities.
In another incident, which took place on Sunday night, Naxals torched a truck in Dhanbad district. A little later, they torched three more trucks in the Isri block of the neighbouring Giridih district, 210 km from Ranchi. They also blew up a bridge in the same block.
Police said the Maoists also fired gun shots at buses on the GT Road in Dhanbad, injuring three persons. Later, Maoists blew up a stretch of a railway track between Bokaro thermal plant and Dhanbad. The incident took place at around 2:30 am due to which Shaktipunj Express was affected. A goods train was derailed.
The strike effect was also visible in Latehar and Palamau where markets wore a deserted look. There were also reports of some small explosions triggered off by the rebels, the police said. However, no casualties have been reported. “We are expecting more violent activities on Tuesday — the second day of the bandh,” said a spokesman of the state government, adding that the police has been alerted in all the districts.
Maoists have presence in around 230 out of 600-odd districts across the country. Of late, the rebels have stepped up violent activities in Jharkhand, where they are active in 18 of the 24 districts. Only last week, the state witnessed the gruesome murder of a police intelligence officer. The recent trend shows that the Maoists have been targeting intelligence men and informers in all the states where they are operating. Since Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in 2000, 614 civilians and 290 security personnel have been killed in the state in Maoist-related violence.
