Maoists blow up railway tracks, mobile tower in Jharkhand

In two separate attacks, suspected Maoists triggered a blast on the railway tracks in Jharkhand's Giridih district, damaging its fish plates, and also blew up a mobile tower in Hazaribag, the police said.

The banned outfit had called for a 24-hour bandh in Jharkhand and Bihar to protest the arrest of its top leader Prashant Bose alias Kishan Da, who was carrying a bounty of Rs 1 crore on his head.

Bose was the mastermind behind more than 100 incidents of attack and arson in Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Giridih Superintendent of Police Amit Renu said train services on the Howrah-New Delhi route were disrupted for around six hours following the explosion on tracks.

"The blast, suspected to have been triggered by Maoists, left the fish plates in the tracks damaged. A manhunt has been launched to nab the miscreants," Renu stated.

Senior commandant of Railway Protection Force (RPF), Dhanbad, Hemant Kumar, said the incident happened between Chichaki and Karmabad stations around 12.30 am.

The panel clip, too, was damaged in the blast, he said.

Several trains along the Gomoh-Gaya section under Dhanbad division of East Central Railway had to be cancelled or diverted, Kumar said.

Normal services resumed only after 6.30 am, he added.

Rajesh Kumar, the senior public relations officer of ECR-Hajipur zone, maintained that New Delhi- Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express and New Delhi- Sealdah Rajdhani Express are among the trains that had to take an alternative route.

The Dhanbad-Dehri-On-Sone Express had to be cancelled.

During the day, suspected Maoists also blew up a defunct mobile tower with IED at Kharki village in Hazaribag district.

Manoj Ratan Chouthe, the Hazaribag SP, said security personnel are conducting raids in the area to flush out the Maoists.

Anti-naxal campaigns have been intensified in the Bishnugarh area of the district, and all police personnel have been asked to stay alert, he added.

Official sources said bus movements were restricted, during the day, at several places in Hazaribag, Dhanbad and Khunti districts in view of the bandh call.

Three days ago, Maoists had blown up two mobile towers and a water tank in Sariya police station area of Giridih district.

The Giridih police said it has arrested three accused involved in blowing up the mobile towers and another bridge.

In Latehar, the police had on Tuesday night recovered a cylinder from the railway tracks between Chhipdohar and Hehegda station.

Chhipdohar station in-charge Viswajit Tiwari said he had information that a cylinder was lying on the tracks between Chhipdohar and Hehegda stations.

A team of police personnel and CRPF jawans reached the spot and removed the cylinder from the tracks.