Maoists blow up railway track near Bokaro

Suspected Maoists blew up a section of the railway track between the Bokaro Steel City and Jharandi stations of the Dhanbad Division of East Central Railway (ECR) in Jharkhand early this morning.

ECR spokesman Dilip Kumar told NetIndian from Patna that the blast took place around 0455 hours and blew up a metre-long section of the track. The bomb created a crater about half a metre deep, he said.

A light engine, which passed over the section a little later, was derailed but no one was injured, Mr Kumar said.

He said an accident relief train had reached the spot and was expected to complete repairs on the damaged section of the track by noon today and restore normal traffic.

While the route does not have too many passenger trains, there is heavy goods traffic.

The Maoists have called a two-day "bandh" in the area to protest against the Centre's plan to launch an offensive against the Naxalites after a series of incidents in recent days.

On October 5, Maoists in Jharkhand had beheaded police inspector Francis Induwar, who they had kidnapped five days earlier.

On October 8, as many as 17 policemen were gunned down by a group of about 150 Naxalites who ambushed them in a thickly forested aea under the Laheri police station of Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.

NNN