Maoists triggered a series of explosions on Tuesday, second day of the 48-hour bandh called by them, causing derailment of two trains and disruption of services in West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa.
Police sources in Patna said an engine and 11 bogies of the 2443 Up Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express derailed on the Gaya-Mughalsarai section of the East Central Railway after Maoists blasted a rail track in Gaya a little before midnight on Monday.
On Tuesday, train services in two sections of the South Eastern Railway (SER) were the worst-hit. Multiple blasts were triggered between Jhargram and Gidhni stations in West Bengal's Paschim Medinipur district, between Kokpara and Dalbhumgarh stations in Jharkhand's East Singbhum district and Bondamunda and Bisra stations in Orissa's Sundargarh district.
“After a blast between the Midnapore and Godapiyasal stations on Sunday midnight, we were running patrol special engines along the Maoist-affected stretch in Paschim Medinipur district. The blast between Jhargram and Gidhni took place while a security team was patrolling the track,” an SER spokesperson said.
In Orissa, in the impact of two blasts on both the up and down lines in the early hours of Tuesday, three locomotives and five wagons of a goods train derailed, an SER press statement said. Though no one was injured in the derailment, the track and overhead wires suffered extensive damage and normality could be restored only at 5.30 p.m.
Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, a policeman was killed in the district of Sareikela-Kharsawan after Maoists opened fire on a police patrol party near the Chouka police station in the early hours of Tuesday.
