Maoists burn down tractor, machinery in Jharkhand - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Maoists burnt down a tractor and some machinery at the construction site of a bridge in Jharkhand's Gumla district on Thursday. The incident took place in the Khambiya village around 145 kilometres from Ranchi. Local police suspect two Maoist organizations - People's Liberation Front of India (PLFI) and Tiger group as being behind the attack. "We suspect PLFI and Tiger group to be behind this attack. We don't have the idea. Maybe the contractor knows. ... When we came here in the morning, everything was lying burnt," said Manoj Kumar Gupta, In-Charge of Gumla Police Station. Maoists have been demanding levy from construction contractors and often cause considerable damage to the construction work in progress when the contractors are unable to pay. The contractors said that they are worried as the frequency of such attacks is hampering their work. "We already have so much work pressure and on top of that such incidents keep on happening. The machines have been damaged whereas we have been threatened that we'll be killed. Here we have eight to ten Maoist organizations. How are we going to answer to all of them? We are working here by risking our lives just to maintain our dignity," said Rajesh Sahu, contractor. The local police are searching for the clues at the site but have not achieved any breakthroughs yet.