Patna/Bhagalpur: Maoists murdered a panchayat official in Munger district, kidnapped two railway employees in Lakhisarai district and stopped train traffic on the busy Kiul-Jamalpur-Bhagalpur route in east Bihar since Tuesday evening as part of the guerrillas' 48-hour Bihar-Jharkhand bandh.

Lakhisarai superintendent of police (SP) Arvind Thakur confirmed the release of assistant station master Mukesh Kumar Paswan and porter Narendra Mandal, who were taken hostage by the guerrillas from the railway halt under the jurisdiction of Jamalpur rail district, around 190km east of Patna, around 1am on Wednesday.

Armed rebels had attacked the station and set the communication room on fire, causing extensive damage, and abducted Paswan and Mandal.

The Maoists then called up and sent text messages to the Lakhisarai district magistrate and the Malda divisional railway manager around midnight, threatening to eliminate the hostages if movement of trains on the Kiul-Jamalpur section was not suspended immediately. A railway official said trains were stopped on the route on the directive of senior railway officials.

Over six trains remained stranded while routes of several other trains were diverted, said Rajesh Kumar, chief public relations officer of Malda railway division. Passengers on trains such as the Muzaffarpur-Bhagalpur Jan Seva Express, the Rajendra Nagar-Banka Intercity, the Jaynagar-Howrah passenger and the Danapur-Sahebganj Intercity had a harrowing experience due to the agitation.

"I have been stuck at Ratanpur station since 2am. Children and women are the worst suffers," said Nitesh Kumar, who was travelling by a Gaya-Jamalpur passenger train that was stopped around 11.22pm on Tuesday. "Even drinking water has become scarce for the passengers."

Senior officers from the police headquarters, including inspector-general (IG), railway, Amit Kumar and IG (operations) Kundan Krishnan visited Masudan to take stock of the situation. "Efforts are on to restore traffic on the route," said Jamalpur SP, rail, Shankar Jha.

SP Thakur said the cops had launched a combing operation in the nearby forests, forcing the Maoists to free the abducted duo. "We are quizzing Paswan to get details. The operation against the Maoists will continue," he said,

On Tuesday evening, suspected Maoists kidnapped a deputy mukhiya, Birendra Kora of Sangrampur panchayat in Munger, whose body was found in a nearby forest on Wednesday. Kora was earlier associated with Naxals. On Monday night, two night guards deputed at the under-construction Kund Ghat dam on the Jamui-Lakhisarai district border were murdered.

"The entire region is dominated by Maoists who virtually run a parallel administration," said an officer, who had earlier served as SP in an east Bihar district.