Maoists attempt to blow up village school in Jharkhand

Palamu (Jharkhand), July 2 (ANI): Maoists damaged parts of a village school here on the second day of the two-day shutdown call given by them across the five States of Jharkhand, Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Chhattisgarh.

Maoist cadres planted two can bombs in the wee hours of Thursday at a school in Charai village here.

One of the bombs partly damaged the school building. The other one, however, could not explode.

"Last night, we heard an explosion. And when we came to school, we saw that everything was damaged and the door was also destroyed," said Rajkumar, a student.

"After the explosion, there were parts of metal everywhere. There were two small packets also. That is what I saw," said Lalmuni Prasad, a villager.

The Maoists have cited anti-people policies of the Central Government, referring to the disinvestment policies and recent price rise, as the reason behind the shutdown. (ANI)