CPI (Maoists) bombed an under-construction police station in Gumla in the small hours of Friday in retaliation against the arrest of their politburo member Prashant Bose and his wife Sheela Marandi by Jharkhand police.

Around 50 armed Maoists attacked the police station at Kurumgadh under Bamda panchayat in Chainpur block of Gumla district in an open challenge to the security forces.

“The Maoists had strategically planned the operation and arrived at the spot at around 12.30am and planted five improvised explosive devices all around the building before waking up six construction workers and taking them hostage for nearly half an hour,” a police officer involved in Maoist operations in Gumla Sadar told The Telegraph.

“The Maoists gave the terrified workers a lecture on their motive for armed struggle against State forces, holding the government and the police responsible for suppressing the poor. They later released the workers and asked them to leave the building as they were going to blow it up. The blast took place after 1am and the Maoists left soon after, leaving behind literature claiming responsibility for the blast,” said the official.

Gumla superintendent of police Dr Ehtesham Waquarib confirmed the blast.

“The CPI (Maoists) have taken responsibility of the blast through posters left in the area stating that this was done in retaliation against the arrest of Prashant Bose and other extremists. We have got some leads and are carrying out a combing operation. The Chainpur area is near Latehar and Palamau and the Maoist also use the dense forest area of Budapahad to escape to Chhattisgarh,” Waquarib said.

The SP said the existing temporary police station was nearly 2.5km away from the under-construction building and there was no casualty in the incident.

Construction work for the new police station had started more than a year back at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore.

The CPI (Maoist) had called a bandh from November 23 to 25 in four states of Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in protest against the arrest of Prashant Bose in Seraikela on November 12.

The bandh was called for the second time by the rebels in a span of four days.

Earlier, during the bandh called on November 20, Maoists had blew up railway tracks in Latehar and Chakradharpur in Jharkhand.