Bihar: Naxals raze train station, blow up 6 towers

Maoists on Wednesday set afire a railway station, attacked a police station and blew up six mobile phone towers at different places to enforce a bandh to protest the arrest of their leader Jagdish Master in Bihar's Gaya district.

"Maoists attacked Kothi police station and blasted six mobile phone towers at different places to enforce the bandh called by the ultras," city Superintendent of Police Ratnamani Sanjeev said.

"Heavily armed Maoist cadre attacked the police station early but alert policemen fired 150 rounds to chase them away," he said, adding no casualty was reported in the exchange of fire between the securitymen and Maoists.

According to a report from Jehanabad, over 25 ultras stormed Nadaul Railway Station in the wee hours, held the railway employees including a station master captive for some time and torched the booking counter, files and control panel.

Bihar DGP Neelmani said that armed Maoists stormed the Nadaul railway station on Patna-Gaya rail route under Danapur division of East Central Railway and torched booking counter and panel room.

"Maoists also opened fire after attacking railway station to create terror," he said.

The train services on the route was disrupted for more than 4 hours and resumed this morning after repair.

The Maoists blasted mobile towers in Bankebazaar, Immganj in Gaya and Tandwa in Aurangabad, police added

Maoists also blew up two towers one at Diburiya and another in Dobhi, Sanjeev said.

A combing operation has been launched in the area to arrest the ultras.

Maoists have called 24-hour shut down in Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh to protest the arrest of their leader Jagdish Master alias Jagdish Yadav.

The top Maoists leader, carrying a cash reward of Rs 2 lakh on his head, was arrested from Gurua in Gaya district a couple of days ago

Additional Inputs: PTI