Odisha: Train services on Howrah-Mumbai route hit as Maoists blow up railway track

Bhubaneswar: Train movement on Howrah–Nagpur–Mumbai route was severely affected after Maoists blew up a railway track at Binuan village between Rourkela and Manoharpur railway station late Thursday night.

Maoist posters and banners were also put up at the blast site.

As per reports, more than 20 trains were held at different stations due to the violence by the ultras.

Following the blast, personnel of CRPF and RPF reached the spot and launched a search operation on the track.

As per the Railway officials, train services on the route had resumed on the route after completion of repair work.

Various outlawed Maoist insurgent groups had called for a nationwide shutdown strike (Bharat bandh) on December 22 to denounce their recent encounters with security personnel. On Wednesday, the Maoists had set on fire multiple vehicles and blocked the National Highway in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma hours after their encounter with security forces in the nearby forest. A passenger bus, two trailers and a pickup vehicle were set on fire by Maoists. There was no loss of life in this arson.

Maoist posters were found pasted on the overbridge wall near Sundargarh private bus stand. The poster has been put up in the name of Prem Kumar Yadav of the People's Liberation Front of India (PLFI) Central Committee. The police reached the spot and launched an investigation.

Sundergarh was excluded from the Maoist-affected district as there were no Left-Wing activities for five years. Earlier, PLFI was active in the Jharkhand border area of Sundargarh. In 2014, six people were brutally killed by the Maoists suspecting them as police informers and then an encounter broke out with the police. Six Maoists, including the PLFI chief, were killed in the encounter. Since then, there was no Maoist movement in the district. After the Maoist poster found on Friday, the LWE activists have once again tried to make their presence felt.