Cop killed as Maoists blast railway station, tracks (Second Lead)
By IANSThursday, July 8, 2010
RANCHI - One policeman was killed as Maoists blew up a railway station and rail tracks in Jharkhand Thursday, the second day of a two-day strike against the killing of one of their top leaders.
“In two separate incidents, Maoists blasted the building of Hehegara railway station and rail tracks near Nichitpur,” Amrendra Das, the public relation officer of Dhanbad railway division, told IANS.
More than a dozen trains were stranded at different places due to the blasts, he said.
Around 100-120 Maoists attacked the railway station, 130 km from here in Latehar district, around 1.45 a.m. and used dynamites to blast it. Maoists abducted two railway employees who were later released.
The security personnel engaged the rebels in a gunfight in which one policeman was killed.
As a precaution, railway authorities have cancelled seven trains that pass through the section.
In the second incident, Maoists targeted rail tracks near the Nichitpur halt in Dhanbad district, 190 km from Ranchi.
The rebels also torched a water pump station in the jungle of Kiruiburu of West Singhbhum district.
The Maoists called a shutdown Wednesday and Thursday to protest the killing of their leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad in Andhra Pradesh.
The rebels claim that police killed Azad in a staged gunfight after trapping him in Nagpur.
