Maoist bandh agenda: Coordinated attacks on trains

Gaya, Bihar: The Maoist attack on the Bhubaneswar-Delhi Rajdhani late on Monday night was part of a coordinated strike on railway tracks in four states - Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengal and Orissa. (Read: Maoists blow up track in Bihar, target Rajdhani Express)

"This was a well planned effort by the Maoists to completely disrupt the Howrah-Mumbai and Howrah-Delhi trunk routes at three places," an Eastern Railway spokesperson said.

Between Monday night and Tuesday morning, tracks were blown up in Gaya in Bihar, West Midnapore in Bengal, East Singhbhum in Jharkhand, and Sundargarh in Orissa.

The incidents after the Rajdhani attack were:

• At 11:40 pm on Monday, a railway patrol party going from Kharagpur to Tatanagar heard a blast 12 km from Jhargram (Midnapore). They investigated and discovered the up-line had developed cracks, and part of the down-line track had been blown up.
• At 12:30 am, explosives were planted on railway tracks in Dhanbad, Latehar and Ghatshila in Jharkhand.
• By 4 am, they had targeted railway lines in Orissa's Sundergarh.

Traffic on the Howrah-Mumbai trunk route has been completely disrupted as a result of these coordinated attacks.

Three trains have been cancelled - Ranchi Janshatabdi, Ranchi-Varanasi Express, Tata Amritsar Express; 17 trains have been diverted via Patna, among them are Budh Purnima Express, Chambal Express and the Howrah-Mumbai Mail.