Hazaribagh: Naxalites of the banned Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC), a splinter group of the CPI (Maoist), set fire to three trucks in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh district, a senior police officer said on Wednesday.

The Naxalites set the three trucks on fire at a coal dump near the Katkumsandi Railway Station on Tuesday, Superintendent of Police, Mayur Patel, said. The SP said the three vehicles were completely gutted.

Various coal companies dump coal produced by NTPC and Amrapali and Ashoka coal mining projects of the Central Coalfields Limited near the Katkumsandi railway station for transportation through railway rakes, police said.

Security forces have launched a search operation against the Naxalites in the forest areas bordering Hazaribag and Chatra districts, they said.