No untoward incidents in Jharkhand

RANCHI: The two-day bandh called by the CPI-Maoist brought life in Jharkhand, especially in rural pockets, to a standstill though no major untoward incident was reported. The bandh was called in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Orissa against the Lalgarh operation.

The extremists blew up a panchayat bhawan at Chhatarpur near Daltonganj in the wee hours of Tuesday. However, no there was no casualty.

Mineral transportation was affected in West Singhbum, East Singhbum and Latehar. Transportation of goods trains was also hit. The National Highways wore a deserted look as over 2,000 long distance buses connecting Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa remained off the roads.

According to reports, trading activities came to a halt in Naxal-hit districts like Palamu, Gumla, Lohardaga, Latehar, Chatra, Simdega and Giridih, where both rural and urban markets were shut.