On a day Maoist rebels started their 48-hour shutdown to protest the government’s plan to launch a crackdown on them, two senior officials of a coal company were shot as they were taking a morning walk near Tukutola in Pakur, Jharkhand.

Police are investigating if the killings of Panem Coal Mines Ltd Executive Director Deenanath Sharan (80) and Assistant Manager Sheetal Prasad (65) were carried out by the Naxalites.

“They were shot from a close range,” IG R N Prasad told The Indian Express. Pakur SP Mohamed Nehal added: “Right now when investigations are on, we neither confirm nor deny the involvement of the Maoists in the crime.”

Sharan had retired from Eastern Coalfields Ltd and had taken up the latest assignment with PCML, a joint venture of the Punjab State Electricity Board and private firm Eastern Mineral Trading Agency, in 2006. He had plans to visit his family in Patna for Diwali and had booked his train ticket.

Even Prasad, who had joined the PCML after retiring from CCL last year, had applied for leave to go to Jehanabad on the occasion of Chhath. “Nobody is in a mood to talk. All of us are too traumatised,” said Abhiheikh, Sharan’s nephew.

The Maoists had not claimed responsibility of the crime at the time of going to press. An eyewitness said there were four assailants.

Elsewhere in Jharkhand, the Maoists blew up a stretch of railway track near Jarangdih, four km from the Bokaro Thermal Power Station, in the early hours of the day. Traffic was restored in the afternoon, Bokaro SP Saket Kumar said. In another incident, the Naxalites torched a truck and opened indiscriminate firing on a bus near Ledhatanr along the Grand Trunk road. There were no reports of any casualty. They also set afire three trucks near the residence of a former minister.