Maoists blow up railway tracks in Jharkhand, disrupt Howrah-Mumbai route

Train services on the Howrah-Mumbai route were disrupted for several hours on Friday, after members of the banned CPI (Maoist) blew up a portion of railway tracks in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district late last night. West Singhbhum Superintendent of Police Ashutosh Sekhar said the railway tracks between Mahadevsal and Posoita railway stations, around 150 km from the state capital Ranchi were blown late on Thursday night. “Security has been tightened in the locality. The repair work on the railway tracks has been started from early morning,” he said, adding that Maoists also put up banners and posters in the area. A report by PTI quoted South Eastern Railway’s Chakradharpur Division Assistant Commercial Manager Vinit Kumar saying that train operations in the division resumed around 8:15 am on Friday. “Information about damage to the third tracks between Mahadevsal and Posoita section was received in divisional headquarters at 11:47 pm on Thursday. Tracks of around two to three metres were damaged in the blast by unidentified persons,” Kumar said. Immediately after the incident, the train services were controlled in the Chakradharpur division, he said. According to Kumar, the railway authorities would soon issue a release about the number of trains halted and cancelled due to the incident. Notably, the banned outfit has been observing ‘protest week’ from 16 December and had called for a Bharat bandh on Friday. With inputs from PTI