Naxals attack railway station, blow up tracks in Bihar

Patna: Naxals have blown up the railway track at Simutala near Jamui in Bihar disrupting traffic on the crucial New Delhi-Howrah rail route.

Inspector General of Police (Operations), Bihar, KS Dwivedi said that security has been stepped up along railway tracks to prevent Naxals from attacking.

"Four battalions have been operating on the Naxal-hit areas of Bihar. From Bihar no forces have been moved to Maharashtra or Gadchiroli," said Dwivedi.

Earlier, about 100 armed Naxals raided the Banshipur Railway Station in Bihar and burnt a cabin room in Lakhisarai. A combing operation has been launched. A mobile phone tower was also destroyed and its generator blown up by Naxals in Aurangabad district's Madanpur.

A block office has also been blown up in Munger by the Naxals.

In neighbouring Jharkhand, too, Naxals blew up a school building in Chatra district early on Tuesday morning.

The Naxals blasted Nawadih Middle School dynamite, damaging three rooms in the building.

CPI (Maoists) has been observing a 48-hour shutdown to protest the Centre's alleged efforts to put down their campaign by force.

The outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) has called for a two-day bandh in Bihar and Jharkhand to protest the Central Government's move to crush their violent movement with the help of Indian Air Force and Central paramilitary police force.

While the shutdown has had a big impact in the Naxal-affected rural areas of the two states, it has failed to evoke much response in urban areas.