Midnapore/Calcutta, Nov. 7: Nearly 4,000 residents in about a dozen tribal-dominated villages in Lalgarh today dug up roads connecting West Midnapore and Bankura to prevent police from conducting raids to catch Maoists.

“The villagers are digging up roads to prevent police raids against Maoists. We are looking for several people who are hiding in those villages working actively assisting the Maoists. We will, however, continue our raids,” West Midnapore superintendent of police Rajesh Kumar Singh said.

The raids began after October 2, the day suspected Maoists tirggered a blast in nearby Salboni.

A car in Union steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s convoy bore the brunt of the blast.

After sundown, villagers armed with bows, arrows and spears took gheraoed the police station in Lalgarh town protesting the arrest of three school-going teenagers in Lalgarh in connection with the blast. They hurled stones at the police station and broke a few lights. The three got bail today.

The villagers also placed logs on some places on the village roads and disconnected power supply in Lalgarh town.

The police today produced three persons arrested yesterday in connection with Salboni blast in the court of the chief judicial magistrate of Midnapore.

Sunil Hansda, Sunil Mandi, and Bhagabat Hansda were remanded in police custody till November 14.

A 12-member team from Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Calcutta visited the blast site this afternoon. The pilot car was brought with the aid of a crane and placed on the spot where the blast occurred. “We came here to assist the CID. We have collected various kinds of samples for forensic and ballistic tests,” said Chandranath Bhattacharya, director of laboratory in Calcutta.