Onlookers and railway officials stand beside derailed carriages of a passenger train after an explosion in Kokrajhar, in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, Thursday. – Reuters GAUHATI, India – Suspected rebels blew up rail tracks and launched other attacks overnight in India that killed five people and injuring 13, officials said Thursday. The engine and six coaches of a train packed with more than 700 passengers derailed early Thursday after suspected insurgents triggered an explosive device tied to the track in Kokrajhar district of northeastern Assam state, said S. Hajong, a railway spokesman. A 5-year-old child was killed and 13 other people were injured, two seriously, he said. P. K. Dutta, a superintendent of police, blamed the attack on a faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, which is opposed to talks with the government and has been fighting for independence from India since 1986. Separately, nearly 100 suspected Maoist rebels attacked a village and its police station overnight in Chhattisgarh state in central India, said Girdhari Naik, a top police officer. Two civilians died in the attack, and police killed six suspected rebels in the fighting, said Naik. The rebels also attacked the home of a Congress party leader Avdesh Gautam in Nakulnar, a village in Chhattisgarh state, he said. Two of the politicians relatives were killed in an exchange of gunfire with Gautam's security guards, Naik said. Two other attacks at police stations in the region caused no casualties, he said. There was no independent confirmation of the police claim. The Maoist rebels have been fighting in several Indian states for decades, demanding land and jobs for agricultural laborers and the poor. Their attacks have grown bolder recently as the government renewed an offensive against them. Also Wednesday night, suspected Maoist rebels blew up a railroad station and a section of the rail track in eastern Jharkhand state, but there were no casualties. Maoist rebels called for a two-day strike, beginning Wednesday, after police killed one of their top leaders. The insurgents accused authorities of killing Cherukuri Rajkumar, also known as Azad, in custody on July 2 in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. The rebels, who call themselves the Communist Party of India (Maoist), say they are inspired by the late Chinese communist revolutionary leader Mao Zedong. They have tapped into the rural poor's growing anger at being left out of the country's economic gains and are now present in 20 of India's 28 states. They have an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 fighters. India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called the rebels the country's greatest “internal security threat.” They frequently target police and government officials, whom they accuse of colluding with landlords and rich farmers to exploit the poor. About 2,000 people - including police, militants and civilians - have been killed over the past few years.
