Bihar: Maoist guerillas kill GRP jawans

Patna, Jun 20: CPI-Maoist guerillas killed two Government Railway Police(GRP) jawans and injured four others while escaping with arms and ammunition from their barracks near Sonepur, 30 kms from here.

East Central Railway sources, providing further details of the incident which occurred last night, today said the heavily armed 25-30 member gang boarded the train at Golden Gunj station near Chapra and attacked the GRP escort party in one of the compartments at a remote place near Bara Gopal station and opened fire on them.

Two of the GRP personnel, identifed as Umesh Singh and Ajit Paswan, were killed on the spot, while four others sustained bullet wounds.

All the injured were initially admitted to Sonepur Government Hospital.

Later, they were referred to Patna Medical College and Hospital(PMCH) as the condition of some of them turned critical.

Before escaping in the dark, the guerillas looted three rifles, one carbine and several rounds of ammunition from the deceased and injured GRP personnel.

However, though two passengers were reported to be injured in the crossfire, it was evident from the modus-operandi of the guerillas that it was the Maoists who raided the train in order to loot the arms from the GRP personnel and not to loot or attack the passengers, official sources said.

Though a massive combing operation was soon launched to nab the assailants, none had been arrested so far.

Senior police and railway officials had rushed to the spot to review the entire situation.

Meanwhile, the train, which was coming from Kathgodam in Uttar Pradesh, had left for Howrah following some detention.

UNI