Maoists destroy railroad rails, disrupting train services in Jharkhand

The CPI (Maoists) blew up a railway track in the West Singhbhum region of Jharkhand to commemorate the “Bharat Bandh,” which was organized to protest their previous confrontations with Indian security officials. As a result, more than a dozen trains on the Mumbai-Howrah line were canceled, according to authorities on Friday.

The incident happened late on Thursday night on the South Eastern Railway’s Chakradharpur division, between the Mahadevsal and Posoita stations, around 150 miles from Ranchi. Notably, the outlawed group called for a “bandh” on Friday and began observing “protest week” on December 16.

Ashutosh Shekhar, the West Singhbum SP, said that there were two fully destroyed sleepers under the railway track. He also mentioned that there was traffic disruption till nine in the morning. At least 13 trains were canceled, according to officials, while one was rerouted on the Mumbai-Howrah line. According to them, four trains on the Tata-Kharagpur line were also canceled.

A railway official said, “Only the third line was damaged in the blast, but traffic on the route was suspended during the night and restored in the morning due to security reasons.” Nine MEMU (mainline electric multiple unit) passengers as well as the Tata-Itwari Express are among the trains that were canceled.