Maoists Blast Tower, Set Ablaze Truck
Continuing their violent activities, Maoist rebels blasted a tower of a private telecom firm and set ablaze a truck in Bihar’s Sheohar district last night.
Officials said that nearly 45-50 rebels exploded the Airtel tower at Brindaban Bazar and asked villagers to stay at home.
In another incident earlier, the Maoists had rummaged through the Banshipur Railway Station in Lakhisarai district. They set ablaze a communication system in the railway cabin of the station. In addition, they held three railway employees hostage for a short while, one of them station master.
The two-day shutdown called by rebels in Bihar and Jharkhand was organized to put up a protest to central government’s effort to put down the CPI (Maoists) movement. Security has been beefed up in Bihar and Jharkhand to avoid untoward incidents.
Maoists are active in 18 of the 24 districts of the State. Since Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in 2000, 614 civilians and 290 security personnel have been killed in Maoist related violence.
