Seven members of a polling party were feared to have been abducted after Maoists triggered a landmine blast, killing one person and damaging a vehicle carrying poll officials in Bihar's Jamui district on Sunday, said the police.
The officials were on their way early on Sunday morning to conduct panchayat elections at polling station number 31 and 44, when the Maoists detonated a landmine on a road at Mariam hillock and took away with them seven members of the poll party, Additional Director General Rajyavardhan Sharma told reporters.
The accompanying Special Task Force personnel fired on the Maoists in retaliatory action near Chhurchuriya village under Charkapatthar police station, he said.
However, there was no report of any injury or casualty on the part of the Maoists.
The landmine blast also injured the driver Arun Mandal and a poll official Surya Narayan Yadav, Sharma said, adding the duo was taken to a hospital where Mandal died.
Security personnel comprising Special Task Force and Central Reserve Police Force men were combing the area to rescue abducted polling party members, Sharma said, but refused to divulge their names.
The Maoists had given a call to boycott panchayat polls in Jamui district. The ninth and penultimate phase of panchayat election was held on Sunday.
