The Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, India, is transitioning away from decades of Maoist conflict, with plans to convert security camps into public infrastructure. A senior Maoist commander recently surrendered, marking a significant step in the government's efforts to eliminate Naxalism.
Three people were electrocuted to death and as many others suffered burns when a tent for spectators came in contact with a high-tension power line during a kabaddi match in Chhattisgarh's Kondagaon district.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai announced that North Bastar and Abujhmad regions are now free of Naxal violence, with the fight against Naxalism in South Bastar reaching a decisive phase. He attributes this success to trust-building measures and the surrender of Naxal cadres.
Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju, the powerful general secretary of Communist Party of India-Maoist killed in an encounter along with 26 others on Wednesday, had masterminded several major attacks on security forces in Chhattisgarh and his death is a big blow to the armed movement, said officials.
Seven Naxalites, including two women, were killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district. The gunfight broke out in the early hours of Thursday in the forest of south Abujhmad, along the border of Narayanpur and Dantewada districts. A large cache of weapons and daily use items were recovered from the spot. This incident brings the total number of Naxalites killed in encounters in the Bastar division this year to 215.
Single-phase voting was held in Mizoram on Tuesday, while 20 constituencies in Chhattisgarh voted in the first phase of assembly elections in the state.
Eight District Reserve Guards (DRG) jawans and a civilian driver were killed in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district when Naxals detonated an improvised explosive device targeting their vehicle. The incident occurred near Ambeli village while the security personnel were returning from an anti-Naxalite operation. This is the biggest Naxal attack on security forces in the region in the past two years.
Eight Naxalites and a jawan of the Special Task Force (STF) were killed in an encounter in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district on Saturday, police said.
With this incident, 154 Naxalites have been gunned down by the security forces in different encounters in Chhattisgarh so far this year, the police said.
The total number of voters in the 20 constituencies are 40,78,681, comprising 19,93,937 male, 20,84,675 female and 69 third-gender persons, they pointed out.
The two tribal dominated divisions of Surguja and Bastar having 26 assembly seats that contributed hugely to the Congress' landslide victory in Chhattisgarh in 2018 have swung to the Bharatiya Janata Party this time.
Voting for 10 constituencies was held from 7 am to 3 pm in 10 seats and from 8 am to 5 pm in the rest 10 segments under a thick security blanket of police and paramilitary personnel in the Naxalite-hit Bastar division.
The police on Saturday claimed to have gunned down eight Maoists during an encounter in forests near Kutul-Farasbeda and Kodtameta villages in the district.
Three battalions of the Border Security Force comprising more than 3,000 personnel will move across the border from Odisha to Chhattisgarh and an equal number of Indo-Tibetan Border Police units will further move into the Naxal stronghold of Abujhmad as part of a strategy to intensify anti-Maoist operations in their last bastions, official sources said.
It's a single phase polling in Mizoram while first phase of assembly elections is underway in Chhattisgarh.
While the party announced 144 party candidates for Madhya Pradesh elections, it announced 30 candidates for the Chhattisgarh polls and another 55 for Telangana assembly polls slated next month.
Contests in 13 seats would attract most attention during the Chhattisgarh assembly elections as they feature prominent leaders of the Congress and BJP.
Of the ten police personnel who lost their lives in a Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, five had joined the force after quitting Maoist violence, a senior official said on Thursday.
Samaru Kerketta, who suffered injuries during a kabaddi match held in Sundhru village of Jashpur on October 17, died on Wednesday
The ruling Congress is seeking to retain power in Chhattisgarh by banking on the welfare schemes of the Bhupesh Baghel government, while the Bharatiya Janata Party is hoping to corner it on the issues of alleged corruption, religious conversions and unfulfilled poll promises.
The Congress has pinned its hopes on many of the old-timers and also given representation to some new faces in its first list of candidates announced for the Chhattisgarh assembly polls scheduled next month.
Modi also virtually flagged off a new train between Antagarh in Kanker district and Raipur and kickstarted the distribution of cards of the Centre's Ayushman Bharat scheme to beneficiaries in the state.
What are the political equations, the challenges, and the threats?
As a part of the 235 km Dallirajhara-Rowghat-Jagdalpur railway project, Antagarh, which has a Nagar Panchayat, is now connected to state capital Raipur by a train service.
Globally recognised organisations including the CDC, the Clinton Foundation, and domestic pharmaceutical and health care companies have sent their teams to visit the centres and study the concept, reports R Krishna Das.
Assembly polls in Chhattisgarh will be held in two phases across all 90 seats. The first phase on November 12 will cover 18 constituencies spread over in 8 Left Wing Extremism affected districts (Bastar, Bijapur, Dantewada, Sukma, Kondagaon, Kanker, Narayanpur and Rajnandgaon). The remaining 72 seats in north Chhattisgarh will go to polls in the second phase on November 20. As the state goes to the polls in its first stage on Monday, here's an easy guide to the 1st phase of polling.
Four policemen including a head constable were suspended on Saturday in connection with the Maoists' firing at Chhattisgarh Women and Child Welfare Minister Lata Usendi's residence in Kondagaon district, the police said.
Amid the nationwide lockdown, the 30-year-old Chhattisgarh Armed Force (CAF) jawan, posted in the Naxal-hit Bijapur district, travelled over 1,100 km in three days using goods trains, trucks and river boat, to reach his village in Uttar Pradesh after his mother's death.
A police jawan was killed in a gun-battle with Maoists in insurgency-hit Chhattisgarh's Kondagaon district today, the police said. "The encounter took place near a river in restive Hekli forests under Mardapal police station limits when security personnel were returning after a search operation in the evening," Kondagaon Additional Superintendent of Police Surjit Atri told PTI.
A cache of arms and ammunition was recovered after a prolonged gunbattle between security personnel and Maoists in naxal-affected Kondagaon district of Chhattisgarh, police said on Friday. The exchange of fire took place in Chhote Usri's Patelpara forest under Mardapal police station limits Thursday evening, Kondagaon Additional Superintendent of Police Surjit Atri told PTI.
When the MPV carrying six personnel was around one km away from the camp, ultras triggered a powerful land mine blast, he said.
Sources in the security establishment said the force is also set to get sanctions from the Union Home ministry to raise at least nine fresh battalions soon. They said in order to bolster troop numbers along the 3,488 km long Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, as many as 60 companies have been ordered to move towards the front in various areas like Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.
Five naxals were gunned down by security forces in the jungles of Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district in Maoist hotbed Bastar, police said on Saturday.
Dantewada recorded lowest turnout with 49 per cent voting.
This is the fourth IED blast triggered by Naxals in Chhattisgarh in the last 15 days.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is eyeing a fourth straight term in the tribal-dominated state as the opposition Congress seeks to return to power after 15 years.
'Maoists are enraged that the media is reporting the truth.' 'They want to physically isolate the media and psychologically isolate the villagers who have found the confidence to speak to the press about the real situation.' 'Like terrorism ended in Punjab, Naxalism will end in Chhattisgarh,' the AIIMS doctor-turned IPS officer and SP of Dantewada tells Rediff.com's Archana Masih.
Eight wanted Naxals, three of them carrying rewards on their heads, were arrested from separate places in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Bastar region on Thursday, the police said.
The DD scribe, Dhiraj Kumar said the horrific incident would never fade from his memory.
With heavy security deployment in hyper-sensitive areas of Bastar region ahead of polls, Naxalites are apparently trying to change their course of action and mobilising cadres to town areas to attack "soft targets" outside their core hold, intelligence sources said.
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