Maoist seize train in Jharkhand, set blaze trucks in Bihar

Latehar/Patna, April 22 (PTI) Stepping up their attacks
on the eve of the second phase of Lok Sabha (Lower House of
Parliament) polls, Maoists Wednesday seized a train with
nearly 700 passengers on board in Jharkhand's Latehar district
for over four hours and triggered blasts in Bihar where they
set ablaze trucks and shot dead a driver.

The Maoists seized the Gomo-Mogulsarai BDM train near
Hehegarha railway station at about 7:30 am and released it at
11:39 hours without harming any of the passengers, Senior
Divisional Railway Manager, Dhanbad, Neeraj Ambast said.

"All the passengers are safe. The train has left on its
onward journey," he said. Latehar in India's eastern state
of Jharkhand, is about 125 kms from Ranchi.

The train, with nine coaches, was packed to capacity
without about 700 passengers on board with people were even
standing on the foot boards of the coaches," Railway PRO in
Dhanbad, Amerendra Das said.

In Bihar, a block development office in Aurangabad
district was bombed by Maoists who set ablaze eight trucks in
neighbouring Gaya where they shot dead a driver during a
24-hour bandh called by them in the two states to protest
killing of their cadres by security forces.

Alarmed by the attack, the Union Home Ministry of India
convened a high-level meeting in New Delhi to review the
security situation in naxal-affected areas of Jharkhand,
Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh, where
polling will be held Thursday.

In widespread violence during the first phase of Lok
Sabha elections on April 16, as many as 19 security force
personnel were killed in planned attacks by the Maoists in
Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar.

A K Chandra, CPRO, East Central Zone of the Railways,
said, "The train had been disable by disconnection of the
break pipe." Security forces, including Central Reserve Police
Force (CRPF), had moved from nearby areas of Patratu,
Bharwadi, Latehar and Daltonganj to the site immediately after
the incident, he said.

Latehar Deputy Commissioner Sarvendu Tathagat said, "The
target of the Maoists were the police....The police forces
were moving cautiously."

According to police, a group of nazalites had warned the
station master against any movement of trains during their
bandh.

In Bihar, hundreds of Maoists decended on the office of
the Block Development Officer (BDO) in Aurangabad and blasted
his chamber and adjacent conference hall at around 3 am,
Additional Director General of Police (Headquarter) Neelmani
told PTI in Patna. Nobody was present at the time of the
incident.

In another attack, the naxalites intercepted eight
trucks on the Grand Trunk Road in Barachatti police station
area around 1.30 am and set them on fire, police said.

A truck driver identified as Lakshman Yadav was shot
dead by the ultras when he tried to flee, he said.

In Mednininagar in Jharkhand, Maoists triggered a blast
at Utari-road railway station in Palamau, around 150 kms from
Ranchi, as the bandh called by them got underway.

A group of Maoists triggered a blast at the station,
Palamau Deputy Commissioner Amitabh Kaushal said. However, the
extent of the damage could not be immediately ascertained, he
said.

A Home Ministry official said in New Delhi that the
Centre is in close touch with the states which have been hit
by naxal violence in the recent past.

The Centre has already despatched 3,000 personnel to
Bihar to prevent any naxal violence in the second phase of
polling Thursday, he said. PTI Team
RAI
NNNN