Dhanbad: The Maoists blew up railway tracks in Jharkhand's Giridih district affecting train services on the busy Grand Chord Dhanbad division for seven hours, an official said on Tuesday. On Monday at around 10.45 p.m., the insurgents detonated a bomb on the tracks of the Chauribandh station situated between Parasnath and Hazaribagh Road, Chief Public Relation Officer of North Eastern Railway Rajesh Kumar told IANS over phone.

The insurgents had called for a shutdown in five districts to protest the death penalty given to two Maoists accused of killing Pakur Superintendent of Police Amarjeet Balihar.