Maoists concluded their two-day bandh in Jharkhand with more violence and destruction of public and private property in various parts of the state. The movement of many trains, including Ranchi-Delhi Rajdhani Express and the Tata-Amritsar Express, were affected.
On the second day of the bandh on Tuesday, Maoists continued to target railway properties triggering explosions on its tracks, blowing up school, digging highways and destroying mobile phone companies’ towers. However, the life remained normal in the state capital. The bandh ended on Tuesday midnight.
The bandh was simultaneously called in adjoining Bihar and other states where ‘Red Rebels’ are operating.
The worst incident in Jharkhand on Tuesday took place in the Dhanbad railway division. The Naxals exploded two explosions on the railway tracks at Mcleuskiganj in Latehar district. They blew up the railway track causing the derailment of the engine and 12 bogies of a goods train.
In another incident, the railway track between Daniyan and Jogeshwar near Chandrapura was blasted. The movement of trains on the Chandrapura-Barkakana section was suspended and two passenger trains were cancelled.No one was injured.
At Chaudhary bandh station also, the Maoists had put an explosive device but it was defused when detected by the railways staff. ‘Red Rebels’ dug up highways. Long distance vehicles remained off the roads fearing Maoist violence. On Monday, many trucks were torched in various places.
Maoists exploded dynamite in the Nawadih middle school. Three rooms were destroyed. In Gumla, three mobile phone towers were blown up at Toto, Kotam and Tango.
In Naxal-dominated Chatra district, a middle school was blown up at Huntergunj police station area early Tuesday morning. Maoists exploded dynamite in the Nawadih middle school, destroying three rooms.
In Maoist-infested Palamu district, ‘Red Rebels’ burnt a mobile telephone communication tower at Chando village in the morning. A generator set room and machine room of the Airtel mobile phone company were destroyed in the fire.
On Monday night, railway lines between Daniya and Jogeshwar Bihar under East Central Dhanbad railway station were damaged in landmines explosion. Over 100 Naxals carried out their mission. A number of trains mainly the Gomo-Alahabd express and the Bokaro-Barkakana-Varanasi Express were stopped between Chandrapura and Barakakana railway station.
The Communist Party of India (Maoists) had called the bandh to protest
against the Central and state governments’ proposed plan to launch a joint operation to “crush” their people’s movement for liberation.
Reports reaching here from other places of Jharkhand said the impact of the bandh was seen mainly in Naxal-dominated areas.
In Ranchi, life remained normal on both days of the Naxal bandh. On Monday, Maoists blew up railway tracks leading to derailment of a goods train between Bokaro Thermal and Jarandi stations. And suspected Maoists killed two senior officials of a coalmine near Dhanbad, when they were on their morning walk round. The police are still not sure whether it was the handiwork of Maoists or the extortion mafia. The coal and steel mines every month pay a hefty amount to both to buy peace.
The Dhanbad Division of Railways on Tuesday evening announced cancellation of 3347 Palamu Express running between Daltonganj and Patna. The routes of several trains, including Ranchi-Delhi Rajdhani Express, Howrah-Jabalpur Shaktipunj Express, Ranchi Benaras Express, Jharkhand Express, Tata-Amritsar Express were diverted via Gomo-Gaya.
TNS adds from Patna: The outlawed CPI (Maoist) resorted to violence at quite a few places in Bihar to make their presence felt during the 48-hour bandh, which ended on Tuesday. After blowing up a mobile phone tower and digging up a stretch of road in Aurangabad district on Monday, the ultras raided Bansidhar railway station on Jhajha-Kiul Section of East Central Railway at around midnight and ransacked the station building, burnt the control panels, held the Assistant Station Master on duty on hostage along with other railway employees.
All communication lines were disrupted forcing the railway authorities to stop the movement of all trains on Howrah-Delhi main line for about six hours. Another gang of Naxals blew up a portion of railway track at Simultala near Jamui on the same rail section while yet another group of their armed squad burnt a railway cabin room at Lakhisarai railway station.
While the railways remained the most vulnerable target of the Naxals, they also targeted a state government office and blew up the Block office at Sangrampur under Munger district. However, there were no casualties in all these incidents but the passengers of different trains stranded at different stations on this section had a harrowing experience through out the night.
