Three escort policemen were shot dead and two injured by armed Maoists in a running train near Jamalpur Railway station in Bihar’s Munger district this evening.
A group of 8 to 10 Maoists, which was travelling in Sahebganj-Patna Inter-City Express, opened fire in a ladies
compartment as the train was between a railway tunnel and the the bridge at Ashikpur barely 900 yards away from Jamalpur railway station at around 1745 hours, Railway Superintendent of Police Amitabh Kumar Das said.
The Naxal attack left three escorting members of Bihar Military Police dead and two others injured, Das said.
The Maoists looted three INSAS rifles, a sten gun and an AK-47 besides 460 rounds of ammunition from the dead and
injured personnel who were from the BMP-12 unit at Bhagalpur, Das said.
The Maoists escaped from the train at Passikhana after pulling the chain, where another group of Maoists was waiting
beside the tracks, he said.
The three dead BMP personnel were Hawaldar Ashok Kumar and constables Bhola Thakur and Uday Singh. The injured were
Md. Imtiyaz and Vinay Kumar, Das said.
Injured policemen Md. Imtiyaz told PTI in Jamalpur that eight to ten Maoists were on the train.
When the train slowed down after the chain was pulled, the group of Maoists waiting beside the tracks stabbed him and
another BMP man and snatched away and fired from their weapons, Imtiyaz said.
Munger Range DIG Sudhanshu Kumar went to the spot with security forces and launched a search operation.
The bodies of the slain BMP personnel were taken out of the train when it reached Jamalpur and the two others injured
were hospitalised.
The ladies coach, in which the Maoist attack took place, was detached from the train which left at about 2030 hours.
——————————–PTI