At least two persons have been killed and five others are said to be injured in an attack by the Naxals on a passenger train in Bihar.
According to television reports, the Dhanbad-Patna Intercity Express was attacked near Kundra halt just before the Jamui railway station.
The Naxals targeted Railway Protection Force (RPF) jawans, who were on board the train as a standard security precaution. The ultras wanted to snatch the weapons of the RPF jawans.
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Police said that 100-odd Maoists surrounded the Patna-bound train in a forest area in Jamui at around 1:20 pm and opened fire.
Two of the five Railway Protection Force travelling in the train were hurt but the passengers were safe, Railway sources said in Delhi.
Representational pic
The train driver also received bullet injuries, the sources said, adding the Maoists snatched two rifles from the RPF personnel. As soon as the railway officials posted at Jamui and Mananpur stations came to know of the attack, they informed senior railway officials of Lakhisarai and Jamui districts and sought help from security forces.
CRPF teams from Lakhisarai and Jamui districts have been rushed to the spot and a fierce encounter was on till last reports came in. u00a0
Thursday's incident takes place nineteen days after the audacious attack by the Maoists on a convoy of Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district, killing 28 people including PCC chief Nand Kumar Patel, his son Dinesh, Congress leader Mahendra Karma and ex-MLA Uday Mudliyar and injuring 37 others.
An all-party meet held at Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh's official 7, Race Course Road (RCR) in New Delhi earlier on June 10 emphasized that there can be no compromise on dealing with the Naxal violence.
A resolution, which was adopted at the meeting, urged the youth to leave the path of violence and pursue their goals through democratic means.
The resolution, which strongly denouncing Left-Wing Extremist violence, said nothing can be more dangerous than the insurgency to overthrow parliamentary democracy and Constitution of India through violent means.
The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, has said the government has been following a two-pronged strategy to deal with this challenge of Left Wing Extremism- sustained and proactive operations against Maoist extremists and addressing development and governance issues in Left Wing Extremist affected areas.
"We believe that there is a need to further fine tune and strengthen this strategy. We have already started work in this direction. I would not like to take your time to give details of the steps that we are taking or planning to take, but would only reaffirm that our government will not be found wanting in this regard," said Dr. Singh in his opening remarks at the all-party meeting held in wake of the May 25 Chhattisgarh Maoist attack.
"We believe that there is urgency to the need to effectively deal with the Naxalite menace. Even as we take all measures that are needed to permanently root out this menace, we must immediately ensure that Naxalite violence is held in check and attacks like the one in Chhattisgarh do not recur," he added.
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