Maoists attack Inter-City Express train in Bihar, 3 jawans shot dead

In a daring attack, armed Maoists on Saturday shot dead three GRP jawans and injured two others, besides looting five rifles from them in Sahebganj-Patna Inter-City Express in Bihar’s Munger district, police said.

The incident took place in the running train near a tunnel between Jamalpur and Ashikpur railway stations on Saturday evening, Jamalpur’s railway superintendent of police Amitabh Kumar Das said.

Two other GRP jawans sustained bullet injuries, he said.

The Maoists looted five rifles from the GRP jawans before making good their escape.

The deceased GRP jawans have been identified as Hawaldar Ashok Kumar, constables Bhola Thakur and Uday Singh, Das said adding that the bodies were being sent for postmortem.

The injured GRP jawans are Md Imtiyaz and Vinay Kumar, the SP said adding that arrangements were being made to rush them to a hospital.

Besides five automatic rifles, unspecified number of cartridges were also looted by the Maoists from the GRP jawans, he said.

The five GRP jawans belonged to the Bihar Military Police (BMP)’s 12th unit at Bhagalpur and were escorting the train on way to Danapur, Das said.

Meanwhile, the Sahebganj-Danapur Inter-City Express has reached Jamalpur railway station.

–pTi