RANCHI - Mobile phone towers were blasted as were rail tracks, a bus was bombed and government schools in various places in Jharkhand were attacked by Maoist guerrillas Tuesday, day two of their strike against alleged police excesses.

Train and bus traffic was disrupted across the state, an official here said. The movement of coal and other mining activities, the backbone of the state’s economy, have also been hit.

“Maoist rebels blasted the railway track between Mackluskiganj and Mahua Milan railway stations causing derailment of a goods train. The up and down line of the Central Indian Cord (CIC) has been blocked due to blast,” Amrendra Das, public relations officer of Dhanbad railway division, told IANS.

Late Monday, Maoist guerrillas had blasted the rail tracks between Dania and Jogehswar railway stations in the Dhanbad railway division. Train services in the area came to a standstill with 13 trains impacted.

In Hazaribagh, Maoists attacked a bus from Kolkata going to Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan. Police said the guerrillas tried to stop the bus at Dumri in Hazaribagh but the driver moved on, provoking indiscriminate firing. The Left extremists then hurled a bomb at the bus, leading to nine passengers being injured.

Three of them have been referred to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIMS) in Ranchi.

The violence continued unabated with a government-run school in Nawadih of Chatra district being blown up early Tuesday.

Monday night had also seen three mobile phone towers blown up in Toto village of Gumla district and one tower in Chando village in Palamau district.

The outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) has called for a two-day strike in Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh to protest the Indian government’s move to step up anti-Maoist operations.

The strike has also been called to protest alleged police repression in the name of anti-Maoist operations.