The banned Maoist Communist Centre on Tuesday unleashed violence in Jharkhand, blowing up rail tracks and uprooting signals and lines, leading to the derailment of four trains, while trying to enforce its Tirhut-Mithilananchal bandh against alleged police atrocities.
MCC activists used dynamite to blow up tracks near Nadda on the Narkatiaganj-Gorakhpur section under Samastipur division of East Central Railway, causing derailment of the engine and three bogies of the Gorakhpur-Narkatiaganj train.
No casualty was, however, reported.
The ultras waved placards and fixed their banners both in the front and rear of the train, railway sources said.
The ultras also blew up about 70 metres of track near Pipra station under the same division and damaged signals and points.
An accident was averted as the driver of the Raxual-Muzaffarpur train applied emergency break just as it was about to cross the damaged tracks, the sources said, adding five bombs were still lying there.
The ultras removed fishplates causing derailment of the 285 Darbhanga-Narkatiaganj Express. No casualty was reported, the sources said.
Damaged tracks led to derailment of three coaches of the 521 Kurla-Darbhanga Express at Rambhadrapur near Samastipur, they said.
An engine and two bogies of a passenger train were derailed at Barginia on the Samastipur-Darbhanga section as ultras removed the tracks.
Train services were completely paralysed on the Muzaffarpur-Gorakhpur section with the MCC indulging in large-scale vandalism.
The sources said several trains, including the 501 Hajipur-Raxaul, 502 Raxaul-Hajipur, 524 Raxaul-Muzaffarpur, 517 Muzaffarpur-Gorakhpur and the 527 Muzaffarpur-Raxaul, were cancelled while routes of the Amritsar Express, up and down Saptakranti Express, Saryu Express and Mithila Express were being diverted.
Engineers were pressed into service to repair the tracks and communication systems.
ECR General Manager R S Varshney said in Patna that it would take at least 10 to 12 hours to restore the traffic on the Muzaffarpur-Gorakhpur section.