Trains, bus services hit on day one of Maoist shutdown

RANCHI/PATNA - Trains were cancelled, vehicular traffic was hit and an alert sounded Monday due to a two-day Maoist shutdown in Jharkhand and Bihar to protest the arrest of its two key leaders, officials said.

The duo - Sambhuji and Kamruddin - were nabbed from Rohtas district and Patna district, respectively, in Bihar.

However, there were no reports of any violent incident during the first day of the shutdown.

In Jharkhand, nine trains were cancelled, bus services were hit and trucks were stranded in several parts of the state.

“As a precaution, we have cancelled nine trains and some have been rescheduled,” K.S. Upadhyaya, the divisional railway manager of Dhanbad railway division, told IANS over phone.

The cancelled trains include the Palamau Express and seven passenger trains. Seven trains were diverted including the Hatia Express and New Delhi Express.

Vehicular traffic was also badly hit. No long-route buses plied and trucks were stranded in different places. The highways were deserted.

In Bihar, at least nine trains were cancelled and some diverted.

The trains cancelled included Patna-Barka Kana Singrauli Express, Barka Kana-Patna Express and the Singrauli-Garhwa Express, an official of the East Central Railway told IANS.

Simultaneously, security forces went on high alert.

“An alert has been sounded in the state and adequate security arrangements are in place,” Bihar’s Additional Director General of Police P.K. Thakur said.

Public transport was hit in some rural areas. A few long-route bus services were cancelled.

A senior police officer in Kolkata said West Bengal had been spared by the Maoists from the shutdown call.