Patna, September 23
Maoist rebels enforcing a 24-hour strike killed three persons, set ablaze several trucks, blasted one railway station and two rail tracks in separate incidents of violence in Bihar and Jharkhand today.
The bandh call by an outlawed extremist outfit in Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh was in protest against the recent arrests of their top leaders Tushar Kant Bhattacharya and Brajmohan Ram from Bihar and Misir Besra, alias Bhaskar, from Jharkhand.
At least three persons, including a policeman, were today killed in an attack by Naxalites in Gaya District of Bihar. The Maoist strike began on a violent note with the rebels gunning down a constable of the Special Auxiliary Force, a truck driver and the cleaner on the GT Road near Amas and Barachatti police stations in Gaya, about 135 km from here.
After the attack, the Maoists set ablaze 13 trucks parked on roads.The goods loaded in these trucks were damaged in the fire.
Besides, in Rohtas district of Bihar, the Maoists blew up a railway track near the Pahleja railway station on the Mugalsaral-Gaya rail section. Train services on the Grand-Chord section were suspended. The bandh affected road and rail services at several places in the state.
In Jharkhand, train services in the Dhanbad-Gaya section were paralysed, as the railway track was blown up near the Parasnath station by the banned ultras late last night. Many trains on this route, including Rajdhani Express and Kshipra Express, were reportedly standing at different stations.
In another incident in Jharkhand, around 30 Maoist activists blasted the Kajra Nawadih railway station and a railway track in Palamau district, around 210 km from Ranchi.
According to Gauri Shankar Rath, additional director-general of police, special branch, Jharkhand, the rebels left behind posters and pamphlets in their support.
Tushar Kant Bhattacharya and
his accomplice were arrested by a special task force of the Bihar police from the Dujra locality of Patna on Wednesday last. In his 50s, Bhattacharya belongs to Kagajnagar of Andhra Pradesh’s Adliabad district and is an accused in a number of murder cases in his home state, Maharashtra, Uttarkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhatisgarh and Delhi. He is the chief of the group's "Triple U" unit that operates in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and 'Uttar' (north) Bihar and also is a member of the international forum of the extremist outfit.
The railway authorities in Jharkhand suspended passenger and goods train in the Barkakana Gartiwa sections as a precautionary measure. Long-distance buses have been suspended till tomorrow.
