Maoists kill eight in Jharkhand's Dumka District

Eight members of a polling team, including five Jharkhand Police personnel, were killed late on Thursday night when a bus carrying them was blown off by a landmine allegedly planted by the Maoists.

The incident took place near Asnajore Village, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Shikaripara Police Station in Jharkhand's Dumka District.

Reports quoted Jharkhand Police Spokesman Anurag Gupta, as saying that the team was returning to Dumka after conducting polls.

The bus was completely destroyed by the blast that injured another 12 state police personnel.

Thursday night's attack was the second executed by suspected Maoists since the start of the staggered, nine-phased general elections, and the first in Jharkhand.

On April 12, 13 people, including poll officials and CRPF personnel, were killed in two Maoist strikes in Chhattisgarh.

Those attacks took place when security and poll officials had just finished their work. The first attack took place in the Darbha Valley of Sukma District, where the Naxals blew up an ambulance using Improvised Explosive device (IED).

Five CRPF jawans were killed and six others were injured. A technician in the ambulance, who was seriously hurt in the attack, succumbed to his injuries next morning.

The second attack took place less than an hour later in Bijapur, where another IED blast by the Maoists blew up the bus in which the poll officials were returning. Five poll officials, the bus driver and its cleaner were killed while three others were injured.

Jharkhand has gone through three phases of polling on April 10, 17 and 24. There are 14 parliamentary constituencies in the state. Dumka was among the four parliamentary constituencies that went to polls on Thursday, and the other three constituencies were Rajmahal, Godda and Dhanbad.