In another incident, Maoist rebels blasted mobile phone towers of BSNL and Reliance at Tukbera village of Palamau district, around 190 km from Ranchi, late Sunday night. No one was injured in the incident. Around 20 to 30 CPI-Maoist rebels blew up the towers.

The CPI-Maoist has called a two-day strike in five states -- Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh -- to protest the arrest of Anil Kumar, a CPI-Maoist politburo member and Kartik, a central committee member.

Maoist guerrillas are active in 18 of the 24 districts of Jharkhand. Nearly 1,500 people have been killed in Maoist-related violence in the last eight years.