Maoist violence hits eastern India ahead of polls date

[Naveed Yaseen]

NEW DELHI (April 23 2009): Maoist rebels went on a rampage in the eastern part of India, hijacking a train, blowing up buildings, setting vehicles ablaze and triggering landmine blasts on Wednesday, a day ahead of the second phase of India's month-long general elections, news reports and officials said.

Around 200 Maoist rebels seized a train carrying between 400 to 700 passengers near the Hehegeda railway station in Latehar district of the eastern state of Jharkhand early on Wednesday. They released it four hours later, avoiding a confrontation with security forces, and retreated into the jungles. "Nobody was harmed at any point of time and all passengers are perfectly safe," AK Chandra, spokesman for the Indian Railways, told reporters.

Police told the NDTV news channel that the Maoists said they had no plan to cause harm and it was a "symbolic attack." The Maoist rebels, who have called for a boycott of the Indian general elections, had declared a 24-hour shutdown in Jharkhand and the neighbouring state of Bihar on Wednesday. Government officials said the Maoists hijacked the train to protest against the railways for running services despite the shutdown declared in the state.

The train hijacking came amid a spate of attacks carried out by Maoists in Bihar and Jharkhand to enforce their shutdown. Maoist violence was also reported from the eastern state of West Bengal.

The militants killed a truck driver, set fire to nine trucks and bombed a government office in Bihar early Wednesday, the IANS news agency reported. Rebels also planted bombs at a polling station in Bihar that were later defused by security forces, the NDTV network reported.

During one attack in Jharkhand, the rebels blew up a depot just before an express train was due to pass the station. In another attack in the same state, guerrillas blew up a school Tuesday night. Later on Wednesday, Maoists triggered four landmine blasts targeting the police in the Salboni area of West Bengal, the IANS reported. However, no one was injured in the explosions.

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