Train standoff in India ends; no one hurt

NEW DELHI, April 22 (UPI) -- A four-hour standoff between Maoist rebels and Indian authorities ended Wednesday with the release of a train and its 300 passengers unharmed, officials said.

The suspected rebels hijacked the train in an apparent protest over some former Maoists participating in India's general elections, CNN reported.

The Maoists, known as Naxalites, didn't want the former rebels "to join the mainstream and, therefore, stopped this train," said Sarvendu Tathagat, a Latehar district deputy commissioner in the state of Jharkhand.

Jharkhand is a mineral-rich area where rebels say they're fighting for the poor and dispossessed, CNN reported.

About 300 men boarded the train and disabled its braking system, officials said. The hijackers, apparently unarmed, released the train after "persuasion" by railway officials and area villagers, railway official A.K. Chandra told CNN.

India is in the midst of month-long general elections with staggered polling. The second round begins Thursday. Election officials will count the vote electronically on May 16, three days after the last round of polling. This year, the 714 million eligible voters will elect representatives to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament.