Sunday, April 9 2006 11:37 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Gaya: Naxalites blew up a halt station and portions of a railway track in this district in the wee hours today (Apr 09, 2006) to enforce a strike called by the CPI (Maoist) activists to protest against the arrest of their top leaders.

Heavily armed extremists of the banned outfit descended on Bansi Nala halt station on Gaya-Dhanbad section in Gaya district around 2.15 AM and captured the staff before blasting the building with dynamites. The employees were later set free without any harm, railway sources said.

The naxalites also blasted the up and down tracks in a stretch of about three ft each and damaged the overhead electric wires, railway sources said, adding restoration work was on and GRP and Railway Protection Force contingents were guarding the site.

Train services on the grand chord line between Gaya and Patna were suspended last night by the East Central Railway as a precautionary measure in view of the bandh called to protest the arrest of four CPI (Maoist) leaders, including its senior commanders Guddu Sharma and Binda Singh in Patna last Sunday following which the naxalites had seized Nadaul station in Patna district the same night after chasing away the Station Master.

Though no other untoward incident has been reported from anywhere else normal life has been affected in rural areas of Gaya, Arwal and Jehanabad districts with commercial vehicles off the roads.

Today being Sunday the state and Central government offices, banks and educational institutions are closed.

Reports from rural areas of Gaya, Arwal and Jehanabad districts said the shopkeepers downed the shutters due to fear of reprisal from naxalites.