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Jhajha/Patna, June 20: Maoists abducted 19 railway employees, including a station master, in Jamui district this morning for defying a bandh but released them after nearly six hours of torture.
The incident crippled train services in the Madhupur-Jhajha section of Eastern Railway for nearly eight hours. Several trains, including 18184 Down Danapur-Tata Express, 12317 Up Sealdah-Akal Takht Express and Dhanbad-Tara Intercity Express, remained stranded at various stations.
Among the abducted were Ghorparan station manager Binay Kumar, cabin man Dukhan Mahto and a porter, Munna Kumar. Sources said the rebels had targeted them for running trains on the Jhajha-Kiul section, defying a bandh called by the banned CPI(Maoist).
The rebels swooped down on the Ghorparan railway station around 10.20am and held the three employees captive at gunpoint. “They assaulted the railway employees and took hostage 16 casual labourers engaged in track maintenance work,” a source said.
The rebels then whisked away all the abducted persons towards a dense forest area adjacent to the station, sending alarm bells ringing at the divisional railway office in Asansol in Bengal and the Bihar police headquarters in Patna.
Though the abductors freed the casual labourers around 12noon, they took Kumar, Mahto and Munna towards some unknown destination.
On getting information, senior police and administrative officers, including Jamui district magistrate Mayank Warwade and superintendent of police Upendra Prasad Sharma, swung into action and launched a massive combing operation to free the three employees who were still in Maoist captivity.
A senior railway officer said the first information about the abduction of the railway staff was reported at Narganjo railway station. “18184 Down Danapur-Tata Express was stranded at Narganjo station for over half-an-hour. There was no one to give a clearance for its upward journey,” he said.
“The driver and the guard of the train went to the station to find out why there was no signal for its upward journey and found that the cabin man of Ghorparan station was missing. The train could not start its journey towards Ghorparan unless a signal came form the cabin man. The driver and the guard then raised an alarm and got in touch with their superiors,” the officer added.
Once it came to light that the station master and the cabin man were missing, railway officials contacted the Government Railway Police.
Around 12.20pm, a light engine with railway security personnel from Jhajha left for Ghorparan.
Subsequently a special train to patrol the track reached there.
“All the railway employees have been released and are safe,” additional director general of police (railway) Paras Nath Roy said.
Recalling the ordeal in captivity, a labourer said: “We were forced to walk on foot about one-and a-half km from the Ghorparan station. They beat us up mercilessly in captivity. They also threatened us if we took up the maintenance work. They, however, later allowed us to go.”
The labourer added that they were unaware of any bandh called by the Maoists.