Thursday, January 26 2006 10:42 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Ranchi: Maoists engaged security forces at Palamu's Hariharganj police station with a fierce gun battle for over three hours from yesterday (Jan 25,2006) night as the extremists began their nationwide bandh on a violent note, blasting railway tracks in at least three places in Jharkhand.

The Naxalites also laid a seize around the police station and tried to gherao the sub-divisional police officer's residence situated near the police station, according to sources in the DGP control room here. The forces on high alert broke the seize around three am.

A group of the extremists opened fire on a patrol party of the Railway Protection Force near Pasaita in West Singhbhum, leading to an encounter there. There was no report of any casualty from neither side in the two encounters.

Train services were badly affected following the ultras triggering blasts in the wee hours today between Kita and Goutamdhara in Ranchi, Dhania and Jageswar in Bokaro and Harubera and Gola near Ramgarh.

The ultras poured Mobil on most of the routes with an aim to slow down the movement of vehicles of the security personnel, police sources said.

Train services on the main line under Chakradharpur division of the S E Railway came to a standstill since midnight last night due to the encounter at Pasaita.

Efforts are on to move the trains on the Asansol-Jha main line, according to railway sources.

The trains detained included the Vananchal Express near Chandrapura, Maurya Express near Dhanbad, Patna-Hatia Express near Hazaribag road, Dhanbad-Hatia passenger and Dhanbad-Ranchi Inter-City near Dhanbad and Gomo-Chowparan passenger train near Gomo, the railway sources said.

The general strike hardly evoked any response in the urban areas while there was a thin road traffic on national highways where patrolling has been intensified.