Naxalites blow up railway track in Giridih

Shashank Shekhar

Dhanbad ( Jharkhand) : More than  three dozen armed naxalites blew up 1.50 metre railway track between Chichaki and Karmabandh railway stations in Giridih on Grand chord route falling in Dhanbad railway division of East Central Railway (ECR) after May 28, 2017, midnight. The spot where the track was blown up is hardly 21 km away from Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Gomoh station.

While one group of naxalites were targeting railway property  on grand chord route, another group of  naxalites, which included women, later set afire an excavator  and diesel pump belonging to a road construction company engaged in construction of road under Birni police station in Giridih district at village Garhagur shouting those who refusing to pay levy will face the same consequence.

Later in Girdih  district, another group of Maoists  blocked Girdih-Dumri  main road  near Dhawatand (Madhuban) seeing an SUV moving on road despite the Maoists bandh call forced the driver to stop it and  after pushing him out of the vehicle set it ablaze.

Due to blast on railway track several trains including Kolkatta Rajdhani, Hatia Rajdhani and Bhuvneshwar Rajdhani besides  Howrah—Dehradun Express, Kalka Mail and more than  10 other  passenger trains  and dozens of Goods train  were forced to stop at different station  between Dhanbad and Gaya Junction  fearing  further naxal  attacks. Movement of train started after 8 am on May 29, 2017, after the damaged tracks were  repaired.

Soon after the  report of  blast and attacks in Girdih reached the Jharkhand police headquarters, cops were instructed to remain  stationed  at their places of posting and police barracks rather than challenge the naxalites  at the odd hours to avoid getting ambushed. At about 5.30 am on May 29, cops and RPF men posted at Hazaribagh road station rushed to the spot while Girdih SP A K Bariar  also reached the track blast site  and started operation against the naxalites.

ADG (Operations and police  spokesperson) Raj Kumar Mallick stated that as railway property is a soft target desperate and frustrated  naxalites attack  railway tracks to just to make their presence felt.