Maoists on Wednesday unleashed violence in West Bengal killing five CRPF men and blowing up a government office in Orissa on the last day of their 48-hour bandh in five states, spurning Home Minister P Chidambaram's offer for talks.
Before the bandh to protest security operations against them came to an end in West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa, the left wing extremists blasted IED at Lalgarh in Midnapore district killing five CRPF men, including Deputy Commandant Vijay Pal Singh.
The CRPF men had set out from their camp at Goaltore market to patrol nearby villages and to visit another camp when the blast took place at Ramgarh, CRPF IG (Eastern Sector) M Nageswar Rao said here.
The blast left a five-feet deep crater on the road at Lalgarh which has been a hotbed of Naxal activities in the last couple of years.
In another incident in the district, suspected Maoists triggered a landmine blast on a railway track near Jhargram, injuring two drivers of a goods train and leaving the engine of the freight train damaged.
The engine and windshield of the train were damaged by the blast which left a two-feet deep crater at the spot. Several rail sleepers were blown off and the overhead power cable snapped on both tracks under the impact of the blast. The incident disrupted train services on the Kharagpur-Tata Nagar section of South Eastern Railway, which cancelled or diverted a number of trains.
Normal life came to a standstill in Jungle Mahal areas of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia districts as vehicles remained off the roads and shops and markets remained closed.
In Orissa, armed ultras stormed the Badigata village in Malkangiri district in the wee hours and triggered a landmine explosion to blow up the panchayat office building, police said.
The bandh affected vehicular movement in Naxal-hit districts of Malkangiri, Koraput, Gajapati, Rayagada and Sundargarh where commercial establishments remained closed. Other districts were unaffected.
