Suspected Maoists detonated landmines on Sunday morning, destroying railway tracks between Karampada (Jharkhand) and Renjeda (Odisha) on the last day of their annual ‘Shaheed Saptah’ (Martyrs’ Week).
The blast, which occurred in the insurgency-hit Saranda forest region, brought train operations to a halt but caused no casualties as no trains were passing at the time.
The explosion severely damaged the tracks under the Bimalagarh section. Security forces — including Odisha and Jharkhand Police, CRPF, and Jharkhand Jaguars — have launched an intensive combing operation in the dense forest, deploying bomb detection teams to check for more explosives.
The attack follows a surge in Maoist propaganda, with posters and banners surfacing in Odisha’s Malkangiri, Rayagada, and neighbouring states last week. Intelligence inputs also linked the rebels to recent theft of explosives from mining sites in the region.
Authorities had already placed border districts on high alert during the July 28–August 3 ‘Shaheed Saptah’. The railway sabotage marks one of the most significant escalations during the period.
