Maoists blew up a small portion of rail track in Giridih district of Jharkhand, disrupting traffic movement for a few hours on Monday evening. According to a police official, a portion of both the up and down track was blown up near Chowdhary Bandh and Chingdo railway stations under Dhanbad Division of East Central Railways by the Maoists around 10.45 p.m. According to officials, the explosion was a part of the 48-hour bandh call given by the Maoists against the death sentences awarded to two Naxals in connection with the murder of the then SP of Pakur, Amarjeet Balihar, in 2013. Additional police deployment has been done in other sensitive areas. An alert has already been sounded to the police in all the districts. "Heavy force deployment has been done. Also, the Railways worked hard and restored the line within a few hours. Normal traffic has resumed," said SDPO (Bagodar) Vinod Kumar Mahato. Eight express trains were stopped at various stations on Monday night and 13 trains diverted due to the blast, Dhanbad Rail Division Manager (DRM) Anil Kumar Mishra said. "At least 13 trains, both up and down trains, all of which were mail and express trains had to be diverted. We restored the track around 3.40 a.m. and the traffic has been normalised. During this period, no Rajdhanis were due." Some of the trains that got affected were Chambal Express, Ganga-Damodar Express, Hatia-Patna Express, Puri Express and Howrah-Kalka Mail.
