Maoists blew up communication system in Bihar

Gaya (Bihar), Jan 18 (ANI): The banned Maoist activists blew up three mobile phone towers, destroyed railway tracks and forced shops to close during a day-long strike in Bihar on Monday.

According to Bihar Police mobile phone towers belonged to the telecom companies Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications.

Maoists activists, who were around 30-35 in number, blew up a mobile tower in Sherpur village in Gaya district.Yesterday around 9 PM (IST) at night, around 30-35 Maoist Communist Centre ultras entered Sherpur village and blew up the generator and machinery of Airtel tower. They fired around two rounds, too. They raised slogans as well," said Roopnarayan Rana, Station House Officer.

The ultras also torched two lorries and kept cars and buses off the road in rural parts of the state to protest the arrest of a top-ranking Maoist commander over the weekend.

Police added that the Maoists have evoked strikes, protesting the arrest of their senior leader Subodhji, alias Anand.

Subodhji is a special area committee member of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-M) of the Bihar-Jharkhand area. A special task force and district police had arrested him on January 15. (ANI)