'Killing 40, 50 or 100 Maoist leaders will not solve the issue. If there were no Maoists tomorrow it does not mean that violence will go away. And that is what the government should worry about,' says Rahul Pandita, author of Hello, Bastar: The Untold Story of India's Maoist Movement.
A woman Maoist was killed and three security personnel injured in an exchange of fire between the two sides at Pallur in Koraput district in Orissa on Thursday morning. The exchange of fire took place when jawans of the Special Operation Group, the state's elite anti-Naxal force, were involved in a combing operation in Pallur area under Narayan Patna police station, said Y J Rao, sub-divisional police officer of Narayana Patna.
The Communist Party of India - Maoist on Thursday rubbished charges leveled by the Communist Party of India Marxist, that the Trinamool Congress was patronising Maoists, saying the Left Front party was trying to keep itself afloat by making such allegations. "There is no need for us to have the CPI-M or the Trinamool Congress as allies," Maoist leader Kishenji said while reacting to the CPI-M's allegations that the outfit was protected by the TC.
In a daring attack, a group of over 25 Maoists attacked a police camp belonging to the joint forces in Purulia district, West Bengal, injuring ten police personnel, the police said on Sunday. In a retaliatory raid by the forces on a nearby village, three ultras were injured. Purulia Superintendent of Police Rajesh Yadav said Maoists, aided by villagers belonging to the People's Committee against Police Atrocities, raided the Gurpana police camp at approximately 11.30 am.
Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi said on Wednesday that the Maoists had been trying to set up base in Assam for the last three years to exploit the fluid situation in the insurgency-hit state, but in vain, thanks to alertness shown by the Assam police, a force with much experience in counter-insurgency operations.
The last six to seven years of the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar has not seen any significant increase in Maoist violence, which nevertheless continues to take a toll of lives and government property.
Two weeks after Maoists and police exchanged fire in Wayanad, a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet and two offices of the Forest department were on Monday attacked by suspected Maoists in Palakkad and Wayanad districts.
The rebels threatened to resume the blockades of highways leading to capital and other district headquarters if Parliament failed to set in motion the process for constituent assembly elections on Friday.
The attacks follow the initiation of Operation Green Hunt against the Naxals by the government.
"Talks have been suspended. There has been delay in resolving the issue as Odisha government is buying time instead of sincerely responding to the demands of the Maoists," mediators B D Sharma and Dandapani Mohanty told media persons in Bhubaneswar.
A Bihar court on Friday acquitted 11 Nepali Maoist leaders after hearing the state government's petition for the withdrawal of criminal cases against them. Two days after the state government filed a petition in the Patna civil court for the withdrawal of cases, Additional District Judge Bashishtha Narain Singh ordered the acquittal of the Nepal Maoist leaders after holding a hearing on the petition.
Ending uncertainty and suspense, the Maoists have released Atindranath Dutta, the police officer, whom they abducted last week.
Azad, the spokesperson of the Central Committee of the outlawed Communist Party of India - Maoist, said in a statement that a separate state of Telangana is an 'inalienable right' of the four crore people of the region. He called for a 'united militant mass struggle' against the 'fascist Congress regime' and the 'betrayers in various political garbs to achieve' a separate Telangana. The Maoist leader also slammed the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, saying it wasted five years.
Claiming that Union Home Minister P Chidambaram was not interested in holding talks, Kishenji said both sides should sit for dialogue while ensuring that there was no state-sponsored terrorism and revenge tactics.
A day after Maoists' mediators announced that abducted Sukma Collector Alex Paul Menon will be released within 48 hours, the Chhattisgarh government said it was hopeful that the ten-day hostage crisis will come to an end today and the IAS officer would be freed by Wednesday. The breakthrough to ensure the safe return of the 32-year-old collector, who was abducted on April 21, came in the form of an agreement between the two mediators of the Chattisgarh government.
Alert policemen retaliated and exchange around 60 rounds with the ultras.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Monday said that there was some progress in the talks with Maoists for the release of abducted Sukma collector Alex Paul Menon, with both sides agreeing on some points.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam chief J. Jayalalithaa on Monday said the Centre should "go all out to eradicate" the Maoists.
'The time has come for all those believe in a democratic India to stand up and be counted and to make a choice.'
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday claimed that the Communist Party of India-Marxist was importing Maoists from Nepal and providing them with arms to terrorise people.
"I would like no ifs, no buts and no conditions," Chidambaram said in a statement in New Delhi, a day after the CPI-Maoists made a conditional ceasefire offer provided the government halted the offensive against them for 72 days and involve mediators for talks.
A top Maoist leader, allegedly involved in the killing of five policemen and subversive activities ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, was arrested on Thursday in Latehar district of Jharkhand.
'While there are indications of failure in some aspects, only a thorough review will reveal how the police camp with adequate strength was overrun, when there was daylight, by the CPI (Maoist),' he said in a statement in New Delhi.
a group of suspected Communist Party of India-Maoist rebels stormed the Tankuppa police outpost, in Gaya.
Suspected Maoists blew up a portion of railway tracks in Orissa in the wee hours on Wednesday causing derailment of a goods train and disrupting train services on the Howrah-Mumbai route.
Maoists blew up tracks on the Jhaja-Jasidih section of the East Central Railway in Bihar's Jamui district and killed an alleged police informer in Orissa's Sundergarh district to enforce a 72-hour bandh in five states, on Sunday.
The Centre on Monday said it banned Communist Party of India-Maoist as a terror organisation to avoid any ambiguity after the merger of Communist Party of India-(Marxist Leninist) Liberation and Maoist Communist Centre in 2004.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist), a Naxalite outfit, on Thursday slammed the Maoists for destroying the communist movement by indulging in individual annihilation and facilitating the despatch of para-military forces and commandos to Lalgarh.
Maoist commander of Udanti-Raighar-Sinapali border area committee, operating in Orissa-Chhattisgarh border, Laxmidhar Nayak alias Gundadhul surrendered before police in Nabarangapur, Orissa.
Terming Thursday's attack on a passenger train in Jharkhand as a 'cowardly act', Union Home Secretary G K Pillai said on Friday that Maoists were terrorists and he had no sympathy for them.
Launching their final offensive to reclaim the areas held by the Maoists in West Midnapore district, security forces started marching towards Kantapahari -- the last stronghold of the Maoists -- from both Lalgarh and Ramgarh on Monday.The forces, comprising 1600 men of the Central Reserve Police Force, Border Security Force, State Armed Police and India Reserve Battalion, set out at approximately 7 am from Lalgarh and Ramgarh in a pincer movement.
The UNESCO-listed temple, which was closed temporarily on Friday after two Indian priests were trashed by Maoists, opened its doors for the public at 4.00 am as hundreds of worshippers queued up to offer prayers at the temple.
An AK-47 rifle, one SLR, three Insas rifles and a .303 rifle were also recovered from the encounter spot.
In a bid to create terror and panic ahead of the polls, Maoists blew up a government middle school at Lakhisarai district in Bihar on early Thursday, just as the state was going to polls, the police said.
There was no possibility of holding talks with Maoists or tribal group PCPA, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee said on Sunday even as he maintained that law and order in Naxal-infested Lalgarh and adjacent areas has improved but more work needs to be done.
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