Suspected communist rebels blew up a jeep carrying polling officials in eastern India, killing five people as part of a wave of violence that has marred India’s elections, officials said Friday.

A brutal heat wave sweeping much of India, together with threats of violence from communist guerillas, marred the second round of voting Thursday in the country’s monthlong election, keeping millions away from the polls.

Voting started peacefully in the second round of India’s monthlong national elections Thursday, a day after communist rebels briefly hijacked a train carrying 300 passengers and carried out other attacks aimed at disrupting the polls.

Police say suspected communist rebels have freed more than 250 train passengers after keeping them hostage for nearly five hours at a rail station in eastern India.

Nearly 250 suspected Maoist rebels hijacked a train with hundreds of passengers aboard in a remote area in eastern India on Wednesday, a day ahead of parliamentary polling that the guerrillas have vowed to disrupt.

Police say nearly 250 suspected Maoist rebels have stopped a train with hundreds of passengers aboard in eastern India, a day ahead of parliamentary polling that the guerrillas have vowed to disrupt.

Suspected Maoist rebels killed five police officers Friday in an ambush in eastern India, officials said.

More than 10,000 flood victims rushed back to their homes from state-run relief camps as water receded from nearly 250 villages more than three weeks after a monsoon-swollen river flooded northern India’s vast plains, officials said Friday.

At least 24 people, mostly women and children, were feared dead after their boat capsized in a river in northern India on Thursday, a government official said.

A government official says 40 people, mostly women and children, are missing after their boat capsized in a river in northern India.