Maoists set ablaze bank, railway station in Bihar

IANS

Maoist guerrillas in Bihar set ablaze a railway station and a bank as well as attacked a police station and a camp of the Special Auxiliary Police to enforce their two-day shutdown, officials said on Tuesday.

The incidents took place late Monday. Guerrillas torched the Ismailpur railway station in Gaya district on the busy Gaya-Mughalsarai rail route, disrupting train services for several hours. Long route trains, including the Rajdhani Express, were affected.

"Maoists first attacked the Ismailpur railway station and forced the railway officials to vacate the place. They then torched the railway station. The documents of the record room were completely destroyed," a police official in Gaya told IANS. No casualties were, however, reported.

In Jamui district, Maoists set on fire a branch of the State Bank of India. "Maoists set ablaze an SBI branch at Khadigram under Barhat police station," an official said.

In another incident, over 100 armed guerrillas attacked a police station and a camp of the Special Auxiliary Police in Rohtas district.

"The alert police officials forced Maoists to flee after an hour-long encounter," Rohtas Superintendent of Police Vikas Vaibhav said.

The Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) called for a two-day shutdown in Bihar and Jharkhand beginning Monday to protest the arrest of two Maoists in Bihar - Sambhuji in Rohtas district and Kamruddin in Patna district.

In view of the shutdown, at least nine trains were cancelled and some diverted in Bihar. The trains cancelled include the Patna-Barka Kana Singrauli Express, the Barka Kana-Patna Express and the Singrauli-Garhwa Express, said an official of the East Central Railway.

"An alert has been sounded in the State and adequate security arrangements are in place," Additional Director General of Police P.K. Thakur said.

Public transport was hit in some rural areas. A few long-route buses also called off their services.