From May 6 to 8th MCC and PW jointly called for an economic blockade throughout Jharkhand, demanding the scrapping of POTA. The blockade was witness to a series of actions all over the state with blasts and actions shaking the very foundation of BJP rule there. Crores of damage to the establishment resulted in panic amongst the ruling classes. By the second day of the economic blockade all trains through the Jharkhand area were suspended. The two revolutionary parties announced that they would not prevent private vehicles and passenger trains from plying and also kept schools and hospitals outside the purview of the blockade.

On the very first day of the bandh, in an action in Koderma district by the MCC, 17 police personnel were killed and 10 others seriously injured. Also, a series of attacks were triggered on railway tracks throughout the state. The ambush occurred at noon when a patrol van of the Jharkhand Armed Police was passing over a culvert in the Satgawan police station area. The van carried 3 head constables and nine constables amongst others. All the arms ammunition were seized by the guerillas of the MCC.

Also incidents of violent actions were reported from Latehar, where the revolutionaries set fire to a railway engine and blew up railway tracks affecting train services. At Khalari railway junction the guerillas laid siege to the railway station before dawn on the first day of the bandh, destroying all the telecommunication equipment.

On the second day of the blockade, life was seriously hit in most of the mining and industrial areas of Jharkhand. Train services were paralysed in all the rail divisions, especially on the Barkakhana-Garhwa route. There was thin traffic on the GT Road and all major National Highways, as commercial vehicles remained off the road.

In Hazaribagh, coal and bauxite transport came to a standstill. The coal belts of Kuju and Charhi wore an abandoned look as loading and dispatch had come to a complete halt. In Palamu three police jawans were attacked and injured on a train. In Garhwa PW revolutionaries stopped a train by seizing the signal man and then confiscated the walki-talkies from the guard and driver. In Dhanbad division MCC cadres seized the Hehegarha railway division. When the administration got information of the MCC take-over, a special GRP patrol train was sent. As it was reaching, the MCC opened fire injuring three jawans. In Latehar district three constables where injured when a police patrol party was fired on by PW activists near Karamdi station, in the Daltonganj area.

During the Bandh days, mass participation of the people in hundreds of villages in the state was seen. The people held mass meetings and took out torchlight processions at many places. Everywhere wall writings and wall posters in great numbers appeared calling for the Bandh.

A week before the date of the commencement of the three day Bandh the police stepped up its terror campaign against the people and revolutionaries to thwart the Bandh call. Hundreds of policemen started patrolling the "sensitive" areas so that the people might not participate in the economic blockade. Many a times guerrilla platoons and police parties came face to face with each other. In the village Jer Gram in the Latehar sub-division a fierce encounter ensued between the revolutionary forces of the Maoists and reactionary forces of the state on May 5. Comrade Avadhesh Prajapati was martyred in this encounter as he was taking a bath when the encounter started and could not join his comrades in combat at the right time. After the encounter the police arrested ten people, including two women from the village, and tortured them. The two women were beaten up mercilessly and the police, in justifying their inhuman behaviour, claimed that the women were members of a guerrilla squad.

In spite of the terror created by the police, the people participated in the rail blockade and declared that they won’t be cowed down by the police atrocities. The revolutionary parties had declared that the passenger train services would be allowed to continue as usual but after the killing of comrade Prajapati in the encounter the services were disrupted at a few places in protest. The parties in a press statement explained their position to the people while condemning the behaviour of the police.

While reports continue to come in, newspapers reported that this was the first major joint action of the MCC and PW. Both have vowed to continue the agitation for the scrapping of POTA and for the lifting of the ban on these parties.