Maoists blow up rail track, enforce strike in Bihar

PATNA - Maoist guerrillas blew up a railway track in Bihar early Monday and enforced a one-day strike in their strongholds to protest the arrest of senior leader Subodhji alias Anand, police said.

The Maoists blew up the track near Nadaul railway station in Jehanabad district, about 50 km from here. Nadaul is situated on Patna-Gaya rail route of East-Central Railway.

Maoists first forced railway officials on duty in the cabin on the outer signal of Nadaul railway station to leave the place. They then blew up the railway track,” Patna Railway Superintendent of Police Jitendra Rana said.

A railway official in Jehanabad said the incident disrupted rail traffic on the route and repair work was underway.

The strike call by Maoists evoked a mixed response in Bihar as urban areas remained unaffected but normal life was hit in villages.

An official in the home department said the Maoists’ strike call evoked no response in Patna, Gaya, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Purnea. But it affected life in Aurangabad, Jehanabad, Arwal and Gaya districts that are considered Maoist strongholds.

The rebels had also torched a truck in Amas police station in Gaya district late Sunday and blew up a mobile phone tower in Sherpur in Gaya district.

Subodhji alias Anand, Bihar-Jharkhand special area committee member of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist, was arrested by the special task force and the district police Friday.

Additional Director General (headquarters) U.S. Dutt said an alert has been sounded across the state in the wake of the Maoists’ strike call.