Ahead of the third phase of panchayat elections, Maoists torched a bus at Posa locality under Panki police station in the extremist-hit Palamau district on Thursday, the police said.
Around a dozen CPI(Maoist) ultras intercepted the bus on its way to Medininagar from Ranchi and asked the passengers and driver to get down before they poured petroleum products and set it ablaze, said DIG (Palamau), Saket Kumar Singh.
The incident occurred barely two days before the third phase of the four-phase panchayat elections.
Keeping the polls in view, the district administration has taken the incident seriously and launched a massive hunt to apprehend the culprits, who escaped after committing the crime.
“We have sealed the bordering areas and conducting search operation to trace those involved in the incident,” Mr. Singh added. PTI
