Two days after Jhajha, Naxals raid railway station in Bihar

Close on the heels of attack on the Jhajha railway station, armed Maoists struck twice in Bihar and neighbouring Jharkhand...

Close on the heels of attack on the Jhajha railway station, armed Maoists struck twice in Bihar and neighbouring Jharkhand in the past 24 hours, targeting a railway station and a stretch of railway track. While on Tuesday night a group raided the Fesar railway station in Aurangabad district of Bihar and held its five employees captive, on Wednesday another group blew up a stretch of railway track in Giridih district of Jharkhand, disrupting train services during a 24-hour bandh called by them in the state.

The attack on Fesar station led to disruption of rail traffic on the Aurangabad-Mughalsarai section of the East Central Railway. Over 200 heavily-armed Naxalites stormed the railway station on the section and held captive the employees, police sources said on Wednesday.

Movement of trains on the section was affected for more than two hours due to the incident, they said. The Maoists later freed the railway employees.

In the wake of the attack at Jhajha station, all railway stations in Bihar have been put on high alert and the Government Railway Police GRP and Railway Protection Force RPF personnel have been advised to move in groups while searching all important trains, the sources said.

The 24-hour bandh in Jharkhand, during which the track was blown up, had been called by the Maoists to protest the killing of eight of their associates in an encounter near Garwah earlier this month.

Several trains were stranded after the Maoists blasted a two-metre stretch of rail track at Choudary-Baandh under the Dhanbad railway division, the police said. They also set afire a truck at Tamar, about 50 km from Ranchi. According to reports, several long-distance vehicles were off the roads due to the bandh, affecting loading and unloading at mineral sites. Security has been tightened in Naxal-infested areas and police are patrolling railway tracks.

The Jharkhand Police have intensified action against the Maoists ever since the Chilkaridih massacre in Giridih district in which 20 people, including son of former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi, were killed six months ago.