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The Maoists shot and injured a truck driver at Topchanchi in Dhanbad district while normal life was partially affected on Wednesday in some areas of Jharkhand during the 24-hour 'Bharat bandh' called by the CPI (Maoist).

'They (Maoists) opened fire on a truck and its driver suffered splinter injuries on Tuesday night at Topchanchi,' Dhanbad Superintendnet of Police Sheetal Oraon, told PTI over the phone.

The SP said the bandh had not affected normal life in Dhanbad with shops and traffic functioning normally.

In a separate incident in the same Topchanchi area, about 20 km from Dhanbad, the Naxalites opened fire on a truck carrying livestock. Its engine caught fire in the incident, but there was no harm to the livestock nor to the driver, police sources said.

The Maoists had called the nationwide bandh against alleged atrocity against them. Last evening they blocked the Hazaribag-Bagodar NH-100 for three hours and forced vehciles and shops to paste pamphlets calling for bandh and asked the drivers and shopkeepeers to support their bandh, according to reports.

According to railway sources, passenger trains on the Barkakana-Garwah road route under Dhanbad division were cancelled today as a precautionary measure. However, goods train on the route were plying with police escort, the sources added.

The bandh evoked partial response in naxal-pockets, particularly in Hazaribag, Chatra, Lohardaga, Gumla, Simdega, Palamau and Latehar districts.