Maoists blast mobile phone tower, community centre in Bihar

Maoists blasted a tower of a private telephone service provider and a community centre in Bihar during their 48-hour bandh in five states to protest the police action at Lalgarh.

Scores of CPI(Maoist) ultras swooped on Jhikatia village in Aurangabad district just past midnight and set off dynamites to blow up the community centre building, police said today.

However, no one was injured as nobody was present at the building when the Maoists triggered the blast.

Maoists blew up the tower of a private telephone company at Kharasi village in extremist-affected Gaya district, also around midnight. The tower was badly damaged, police said.

The place is situated close to Jharkhand border.

Life in Bihar remained largely unaffected by the Maoist bandh barring Barachatti sub-division of Gaya district, where shops and business establishments were closed and traffic including on the 100 km stretch of Grand Trunk road (NH-2) is very thin.