Maoists on rampage in Bihar and Jharkhand

Carrying out fresh attacks, Maoists set ablaze a rail office at Banshipur station in Lakhisarai district after taking eight officials hostages and blew up a block office in neighbouring Munger on the second and final day of their two-day shutdown in Bihar.

In a midnight attack, around 150 ultras stormed the railway station in the important Patna-Kiul-Jhajha section under the Danapur division of the East Central Railway and torched a railway panel room besides destroying the traffic control system, railway officials said.

Rail traffic in the section was halted for over six hours as a result, they said, adding the ultras stormed the station and took six railway officials, the station master and assistant station master on duty as hostages but let them off after warning them of dire consequences if they did not follow the extremists' diktat to stop movement of trains during their agitation, the officials said.

In neighbouring Munger district, over 100 ultras assembled at a block office building at Sangrampur and detonated dynamites blasting the construction in the wee hours on Tuesday, officials said.

Portions of the building collapsed in the powerful explosion, which also destroyed furniture and gutted land revenue related documents.

CPI (Maoist) activists left pamphlets on the spot owning responsibility for the blast.

Superintendent of Police (Munger) along with several other officials reached the blast site and launched a joint combing operation with the Special task force, special auxiliary police and Bihar Military Police personnel.

In a separate incident, the Maoists raided a newly built block office at Bandhu Bagicha under Chanan police station in the district and set afire important files and documents.

Raids were on in the area to track down the naxalites.

An Aurangabad report said Maoist rebels partially destroyed the tower of a private telecom company at Padaiya village in Aurangabad district early Tuesday.

The Naxalites exploded bombs in which a portion of the tower collapsed, officials said.

The ultras also dug up roads near Amba in the district to disrupt movement of traffic.

In another incident, Maoists raided Bankepur Bazaar and blasted mobile tower of private company in Gaya district.

Nobody was injured in the incidents perpetrated by the ultras, who left pamphlets owning responsibility for the violence, officials said.

The bandh has been called to protest the Centre's alleged effort to put down the CPI (Maoists) movement by force.

Jharkhand: Maoists blew up a school building in Jharkhand's Chatra district early Tuesday morning.

"A group of armed Maoists packed dynamites inside the Nawadih Middle School and triggered the blast, damaging its three rooms," Superintendent of Police, D B Sharma, told reporters in Chatra.

The police have tightened security with the personnel manning vital points including, patrolling of railway tracks at several places in Naxal-pockets.

The shutdown has impacted rural Jharkhand, affecting transport and production of various minerals while buses remained off road to avoid damage to life and property. However, the bandh failed to evoke any response in urban areas.