Three persons were killed when the Naxals, on the first day of their two-day Jharkhand bandh exploded an IED in East Singhbhum district, besides blowing up a railway station, school buildings and uprooting tracks elsewhere in the state.
Police superintendent Navin Kumar Singh said the IED was strapped to the tree across a road at Amjore village and as some locals tried to clear it, it exploded.
Two persons were killed on the spot and another succumbed to injuries on way to the MGM hospital at Jamshedpur, where four other injured persons were admitted, Singh said.
Two of the victims were identified as Haldar Mahto and Ravi Singh.
The extremists also blew up Mahubuang railway station in Simdega district and railway tracks early in the morning, IGP V Deshmukh said, adding that they also blew up a stretch of railway track between Jageswar and Dania stations in Bokaro district late last night in which electricity lines were damaged.
The blasts disrupted train services on the route, Railway officials said. However, security personnel have reached the spot and repair work is going on, they added.
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In Pipra village at Palamau district, the Maoists blew up a panchayat hall and five school buildings hours before the bandh last night, Palamau police chief Jatin Narwal said.
The state’s borders with Bihar and Uttar Pradesh had been sealed and anti-Naxal operations were on, Narwal said. The bandh mostly affected rural areas as long distance buses kept off the roads.