Public transport service remained largely affected during the day-long Jharkhand -Bihar bandh called by CPI (Maoist) on Wednesday against the ongoing anti-Naxal operations in the States. The operation of long distance buses remained affected in the State except on Ranchi – Hazaribagh Road. Barring some minor incidents like blowing up or a mobile tower and putting anti-Government posters in Giridih and Chaibasa respectively, no untoward incident was reported from any part of the State.
“No significant incident has been reported from anywhere in the State accept some minor incidents in Giridih and Chaibasa as adequate security arrangement had been done in the wake of the bandh called by the Maoists,” said ADG (Operations) and Jharkhand Police Spokesperson RK Mallick.
Roads all over the State, however, remained deserted as buses and commercial vehicles did not ply. “We cannot put the lives of passengers as well as our staffs on the stake and hence, long distance buses completely remained off road today, accept on Ranchi – Hazaribagh Raod which is completely safe so far,” said president of Bus Owner’s Association Krishan Mohan Singh. Buses also do not ply on the far flung routes as inflow of passengers also decreases drastically on such days, he added.
Meanwhile, normal life in the Left Wing Affected (LWA) districts like Simdega, Latehar and Chatra and other areas also remained largely affected due to bandh as the business community chose not to open their business establishments. The Moists tried to register their presence in Giridih and Chaibasa by blowing up a mobile tower and installing IED targeting the security forces respectively.
“Five IEDs put in series targeting security forces have been recovered last night along with codex wire were recovered from Porahat jungles under Karaikela Police Station which have been defused,” said Chaibasa SP Anish Gupta. Weighing 10 kg each, all the five IEDs were well concealed under the road, he added.
In Giridih also, one mobile tower jointly owned by Airtel and Vodafone was blown up in Mirjadih village and have put several posters under under Madhubar Police Station against the ongoing police action in Budha Pahar area of Latehar.
Collieries located in the far flung areas of the State were also remained affected by the bandh and loading and unloading of coal was not done in any of the areas.
Though, an alert had been sounded all over the State, shops and business establishments in most of the areas like Kudu, Lohardaga, Chandwa, Khunti, Murhu, Simdega, Bundua, Tamar, adjoining to the State Capital, also remained closed due to Naxal menace on Wednesday. Police teams were seen mobile on the roads throughout the day in the Maoist infested areas.
Operation of trains, however, remained unaffected without having any reports of untoward incident.
“Trains under Ranchi Rail Division were operated without any obstruction with the standard guidelines issued by the Ministry of Railways,” said Senior Divisional Commercial Manager MR Acharya. So far, no reports of any untoward incident have been received from anywhere in Ranchi Rail Division, he added.
Sources in the Railways, however, revealed that an undeclared alert had been issued by the Railway officials to thwart the intentions of Maoists, he added.