Maoists went on the rampage on Tuesday as they targeted railway properties in Jharkhand and Bihar besides causing a blast in a school building and destroying mobile phone towers to protest against the Centre's decision to launch an offensive against them. Armed Maoists blasted railway tracks between Mccluskieganj and Mahuamilan in Jharkhand's Latehar district which caused 11 rakes of a goods train to derail,Railway PRO Amrendra Das said. The driver and staff of the train were unhurt,he said,adding the blast disrupted services on both the up and down lines. The violence occurred during the second day of the two-day shutdown called by CPI-Maoist. Tracks were also blasted by another group of 100 cadres between Dania and Jageshwarbihar railway stations with overhead traction wires blown off under its impact,Das said. In Bihar's Lakhisarai district,around 150 ultras stormed the Banshipur railway station and torched a railway panel room and destroyed the traffic control system,official sources said. The Maoists also took hostage six railway officials,the station master and his assistant,but freed them later with a warning not to allow trains to run during a shutdown called by them. In Jharkhand,Maoists damaged three classrooms by setting off a dynamite at the Nawadih Middle School in Chatra district,according to SP D B Sharma. In other incident of violence in Bihar's Munger district,over 100 ultras blasted a dynamite at a block office at Sangrampur,which led parts of the building to collapse. The ultras also raided a newly-built block office at Bandhu Bagicha under Chanan police station in the district and set ablaze files and documents. The Maoists also targeted mobile phone towers in both the states. In Aurangabad in Bihar,the rebels partially destroyed the tower of a private telecom company at Padaiya village in the wee hours,official sources said. Another mobile tower was blasted by them at Bankepur Bazaar in Gaya district. In Jharkhand,ultras attacked and damaged four private mobile phone towers. Generator sets and machinery rooms of four private mobile towers - one at Chando village in Palamau district and three in Gumla district's Toto village were destroyed,police said.
