Date:31/10/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/10/31/stories/2006103101711100.htm

National

Maoist bandh hits train services

K. Balchand

To protest against arrest of its senior leaders

PATNA: The daylong bandh by the Maoists spread over five States to protest against the arrest of their senior leaders had a mixed impact in Bihar, affecting train services in particular.

The naxalites resorted to violence in West Champaran district blasting an office of the Forest Department of the State Government and triggering a mine near Chamua railway station on the Narkatiaganj-Gorakhpur section under the Samastipur division of the East Central Railway.

No casualties

No casualties were reported from the two blasts, though some passengers were injured when a passenger train derailed on account of the damage to the rail track.

A powerful blast damaged a 200-metre stretch of the track leading to the derailment of the engine and six bogies. Trains have been diverted from this route.

The bandh had its impact on long route buses and trains. The railway authorities had cancelled over a dozen trains as a precautionary measure and re-routed another six on the busy Grand Chord connecting Delhi and Howrah.

Semi-urban market places coming under the `influence' of the naxalites remained closed generally.

Fake bombs

Bandh supporters used fake bombs to scare people into shutting shop and closing government offices as in the Mahua block in Vaishali district. The police detected a watch ticking but the ingredients were nothing but sand packed up as a bomb.

The bandh was called for protesting against the arrest of Narendra Kumar alias Osho in West Champaran and the leader of the Nari Mukti Sangh, Sheila Marandi, in Orissa recently.