PATNA, 28 February 2004 — Communist rebels killed five paramilitary soldiers in a land mine blast, blew up railroad tracks and damaged nearly half a dozen rail stations in northern and eastern India to protest alleged police atrocities, officials said yesterday.
Suspected guerillas also ambushed a police patrol Thursday night in a forest near Sonebhadra, a town 300 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Uttar Pradesh state capital Lucknow, said state government official Dipti Vilas. Three rebels were killed in retaliatory fire.
The paramilitary forces were attacked as they were searching for the rebels who had earlier in the day burned half a dozen shops in Sonebhadra, he said.
Yesterday, the People’s War Group and the Maoist Communist Center targeted railroad tracks and stations during a 24-hour strike called by them in the eastern Indian states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa, and the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, their strongholds.
The Maoist guerrillas are fighting for separate socialist regimes in these states.
“Several intercity trains passing through Bihar have been stopped midway because of heavy damage to the rail track and the signaling system,” said B.N. Bhagat, a railroad official.
