Maoists blast rail tracks, kill guard in Jharkhand

RANCHI - Maoist guerrillas blew up rail tracks in Jharkhand’s Giridih district and killed a village guard in separate incidents Monday, the first day of a 48-hour shutdown called by the rebels.

“Maoist rebels blew up railway tracks near Karmabandh at 1.50 a.m. The blast affected the services of more than 30 trains, including three Rajdhani express trains,” Amrendra Das, public relations officer (PRO) of the Dhanbad railway division, told IANS.

He said the damaged tracks in Giridh, some 190 km from Ranchi, were later repaired and railway services had resumed.

The trains that were affected included the Howrah-New Delhi, Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express, Sealdah Rajdhani, Howrah Rajdhani, Yuva Express, Nilanchal Express, LTT Hatia Express and Ganga-Satluj Express, among others.

In a separate incident, Maoist rebels killed a security guard, Rajeshwar Paswan, in Panduwar village in Garwah district, around 140 km from Ranchi.

Guerrillas also torched a JCB excavator machine in Kasansandi of Hazaribagh district, an official said.

The Maoists have called for a shutdown in West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattishgarh, and Andhra Pradesh apart from eastern Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli, Bhandara and Chadrapur districts and in Madhya Pradesh’s Balaghat district. They are demanding a probe into the July 2 killing of their leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad in Andhra Pradesh.