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SharePATNA: Three persons were killed and another injured on Sunday as violence marked the 24-hour bandh called by the CPI (Maoist) in Bihar to protest the arrest of their leaders.
Principal Secretary (Home) Afzal Amanullah said that all police stations had been put on high alert ever since the bandh had been called. Armed police party comprising the SAP were also patrolling the GT Road.
But at around 2 am on Sunday morning, hundreds of armed men from the People's Gureilla Army of CPI (Maoists) descended on the GT Road from nearby forests and laid an ambush on both ends of the road. Eight vehicles, six trucks and two buses, plying in the area were stopped at gun point and set afire.
When a special auxiliary police contingent reached the spot, an encounter ensued in which a policeman, Shanker Singh, was killed. A bus driver, Kameswar Rai and its conductor, Surajdeo Yadavm, died in the cross-firing, police sources revealed. Another injured truck driver Satynarain Yadav was hospitalised in Gaya where his condition was stated to be critical.
According to the sources, the naxals took a few passengers hostage, but later released them. They also blew up a 50-metre stretch of railway line at Pahleja in neighbouring Rohtas district, disrupting service for over five hours, railway sources said. A five Kg can bomb was seized from the spot, they said.
The national highways in the Maoist stronghold areas of Gaya, Aurangabad and Rohtas districts wore a deserted look as private bus and trucks stayed off the roads.
The Maoists called the bandh in Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh to protest the recent arrest of one of its leaders, Tushar Kant Bhattacharya, one of the most wanted naxal leaders in Andhra-Pradesh, Maharshtra and Chattishgarh.
