Railway expansion work disrupted in Jharkhand due to Maoist threat

Lohardaga (Jharkhand), June 6 (ANI): Maoists in Jharkhand's Lohardaga district have set fire to machines that were being used at an under construction railway expansion project site, and stalled development projects undertaken by the state government.

For the past few years, the rebels have stepped up their efforts against the government as well as the locals, as various locals complained that Maoist activities such as killings and abductions have increased considerably in the area.

Maoists visited the construction site; carrying country made weapons on Tuesday night (June 05) and threatened the night guard to leave the site. The rebels then set fire to the machines at the site.

Sub-Divisional Police Officer-in-charge of Lohardaga district, Ram Gulaam Sharma, said the extremists want to stall the development work and the ultras attack the labourers at the isolated sites.

"At around 1 in the night, around 10 men, carrying country made weapons, arrived at the site. The night guard was sleeping at the site with his son; the men harassed him and asked him to leave the site, saying that the work will remain stalled. They set ablaze the machine at the site. The company officials said that the machine was worth 40 lakh rupees(4 million rupees)," said Sharma.

Sharma added the rebels threatened the contractors of dire consequences and forced them to stop the development work.

"These criminals had also visited a nearby construction site at the border of Latehar district, but they had only found a construction material mixing machine, which they destroyed," added Sharma.

Also known as Naxals, the rebels have fought for decades in a wide swathe of central and eastern India, including many resource-rich regions, where tensions run high between poor farmers and industrial developers.

Backed by China and funded by Pakistan, the Maoists in India are trying to create economic, social and political instability.

The Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of millions of landless people.

The government calls them India's main internal security threat and an obstacle to higher growth and more jobs in Asia's third-largest economy. Hundreds die annually in the conflict, although levels of violence have fallen in recent years. (ANI)