A group of armed men opened fire on a passenger bus plying between Ranchi and Chiabasa near Bandgaon valley on Monday night, but police are not sure if it was the handiwork of Naxalites even though the area in West Singhbum, about 150km from here, is a Naxalite den.

No one was injured although the bus's rear glass screen was shattered.

On Tuesday morning, the bus driver Sitaram Singh had lodged an FIR at Chaibasa police station. In his complaint, Singh said at 9.30 pm when he was crossing the Ranchi- Bandgaon-Chaibasa road, around half-a-dozen armed men suddenly blocked his way and tried to stop the vehicle. When he tried to escape, they had started firing from behind.

According to Chaibasa police, five rounds of bullets were fired, one of them broke the vehicle’s rear glass. Singh said since the vehicle was packed with passengers, it was his responsibility to save their lives. He informed the police that the bus conductor had advised the passengers to bow down when the miscreants continued firing.

West Singhbhum district superintendent of police Ajay Linda had confirmed the incident and said that they were investigating the matter.

“On Monday night, some armed miscreants fired a few rounds of bullets on a bus. But we are yet to find out whether Naxals were involved in this attack. Generally, Naxals do not tend to fire on any passenger vehicle. Those attackers must be criminals who intended to rob the passengers,” said Linda, while speaking to The Telegraph Online.

He also pointed out that as the bus driver had refused to stop, the miscreants got angry and some of them started firing at the vehicle. Linda said as soon as they got the information, a police team immediately reached the spot. However, they could not catch the culprits.

Linda said a fortnight ago a gang of five armed miscreants had tried to stop a bus on Jhinkpani-Chaibasa route and eventually the gang was arrested by the police. After an investigation, it was discovered that the gang had tried to rob the passengers.