A two-storey building used as a panchayat office was blown up by Maoists on Tuesday night at Seeram village in Lohardagga district of Jharkhand.
Police said three improvised explosive devices were used for the blast.
“CPI (Maoists) may have done this as a reaction to the killing of Maoists by the Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC) in Chatra last week. Or they may have targeted this building because a janta durbar [public meeting] was held by my office and the Collector’s office in this building a few days ago to respond to people’s concerns regarding public schemes and Maoists are opposed to this,” said Lohardagga Superintendent of Police Jitendra Kumar Singh.
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Ten members of the CPI (Maoist), including four leaders of the Maoists Madhya zone — the area south of the Grand Trunk Road, including Aurangabad in Bihar and Chatra and Palamu in Jharkhand — were killed in a clash with TPC, a splinter group of Maoists, in Chatra district 100 km north of Ranchi on March 27.
In a statement released on March 31, CPI (Maoists) Bihar Jharkhand North Chhattisgarh special area committee spokesperson Gopal had declared April 1 to 7 as “pratirodh saptaah” (protest week) in which they would avenge the TPC’s killings, and called for a Bihar-Jharkhand bandh on April 6 and 7.