A police sub-inspector, posted in naxal-infested Gadchiroli district, has been booked on charges of raping a 21-year-old wife of an Australian national working in an airline and extorting money from her, police said on Monday.
Four securitymen, including two Central Reserve Police Force personnel, were killed when Naxalites triggered a powerful improvised explosive device blast in a marketplace in Perilimili village in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra when they were out shopping.
A group of Naxalites killed two persons and damaged an abandoned police camp in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, police said on Saturday.
Six policemen were on Tuesday injured when Naxals blew up an anti-landmine vehicle and opened indiscriminate fire on them in Perimili area of Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra.
A group of armed Naxalites allegedly killed a middle-aged former Sarpanch from Gadchiroli district, for being a police informer, police said on Monday.
A group of Naxalites opened fire at a combined security force on Sunday that was creating awareness among villagers ahead of Maharashtra Assembly polls in the interiors of Gadhchiroli district, police said.
Maoists have planned to unleash an intense Tactical Counter Offensive Campaign across the country starting from February and Sunday's ambush of 15 policemen in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district may be just the first of a wave of devastating attacks, highly placed police officials in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh said.
A record 70 per cent voter turnout was registered at 12 of the 22 booths in Gadchiroli district where re-polling was conducted on Thursday.The overall percentage of voting, however, dipped to approximately 60 per cent due to the low turnout at polling stations in Aheri assembly segment. Armouri assembly reported 74 per cent turnout while Gadchiroli recorded 72 per cent and Aheri 39. However, not a single voter turned up for voting at Bamanpalli polling station.
At least five to six Naxalites are suspected to have been killed or injured in an exchange of fire that took place at Pomke Tadgaon in Bhamragarah taluka in Gadchiroli district on Wednesday morning, the police said.
The skirmish took place on Thursday morning when a team of the 171st battalion of Border Security Force was out on a road security operation in Bande police station area, a senior police official said.
More than 24 hours after Maoist rebels mowed down 17 policemen in one of the deadliest attacks in Gadchiroli district, combing operations by the Border Security Force and the state police continued even as people on Friday bade farewell to the martyrs.Hundreds of civilians gathered at the Parade ground in Gadchiroli, in a spontaneous outpouring of grief and respect for the policemen, who laid down their lives in the line of duty combating home-bred Maoist terror.
Maoists on Thursday killed 17 policemen when they ambushed a police patrol in the dense forests of Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra. The daring attack occurred when a police party of nearly 40 personnel came under heavy fire from 150-200 Maoists at approximately 1 pm near Laheri police station of the district, when it was returning after undertaking search operations, following an intelligence input that Maoists had assembled in the area.
The four districts selected under the Centre's programme for expeditious socio-economic development are Gadchiroli, Osmanabad, Washim and Nandurbar. They collectively comprise 14 assembly segments of the total 288 in the state.
The UAV was in operation in Chhattisgarh for quite sometime and results are excellent, he said adding now as part of a strategy, the UAV will be positioned over eastern Maharashtra.
Seven policemen were on Sunday killed and 2 others injured when Naxals carried out a landmine blast in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district.
They were killed when the warehouse in which they were accommodated, gave way on Friday after heavy rains. The men, from SRPF Group IV, were participants in a anti-Naxalite operation in the district, they said.
About 60 naxalites had camped at Kasampalli in south Gadchiroli when two groups of C-60 commmando units of police reached there Wednesday and launched an offensive.
The naxalites targeted the police vehicle carrying 17 personnel at Phulbondi.
The impact of the blast was so tremendous that it created a crater of about five to six feet width at the blast site and flung the police van carrying the STF personnel in the air.
Twelve persons of a marriage party, including four women, were killed when Naxalites triggered a landmine blast on Tuesday at Halewara near Kasansur forest in Gadchiroli district of south-eastern Maharashtra, police said.\n\n
The increase in the frequency of attacks by naxalites on the police and civilians in Vidarbha has law enforcement agencies worried.
Police claimed to have killed "five or six" naxalites, including a deputy commander, in an encounter in Gadchiroli district and recovered from their possession arms, ammunition and naxal literature.
'He is not a person to challenge the government.' 'He is a man who is known to go with the flow' Aditi Phadnis reports.
Incidentally, the state government had recently rejected the findings of a report compiled by the couple about malnutrition deaths in tribal areas.
'Saibaba has 19 ailments, including severe heart and kidney problems.' 'Even healthy persons find their systems failing after Covid.' 'What will happen to someone like Saibaba?', Professor G N Saibaba's wife asks Jyoti Punwani.
Maharashtra Director General of Police Subodh Kumar Jaiswal said that the attack was not a result of intelligence failure.
Heavy rains lashed Mumbai and its suburbs on Wednesday, causing flooding on roads and rail tracks and disrupting suburban train services as the south-west monsoon arrived in the city with a bang, while the India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued an alert for more downpour.
Maharashtra Police on Thursday questioned Delhi University professor G N Saibaba for his alleged links with Maoists, the second time in three months.
The security forces did not suffer any casualty in the encounter.
A professor of Delhi University was arrested by the Maharashtra police on Friday for his alleged links with Maoists, after questioning him more than four times in the last six months.
The Union home ministry on Tuesday ruled out involvement of the army in anti-Naxal operations but said more paramilitary forces will be deployed for intensified operations in Maoists-hit areas to flush out the extremists.
'Naxals, when they encountered our commandos on Sunday morning, fired first.' 'We gave them warnings to surrender, but they continued firing.' 'Ultimately, our commandos responded in self-defence and that resulted in the death of 37 Naxals.'
'People accused of mass murder and worse are let out on medical grounds.' 'Saibaba is now 100% handicapped, and has committed no murder, yet he is not allowed to come out.'
As round one of the seven-phase Lok Sabha election began in 91 constituencies across the length and breadth of India, from the hills of Kashmir to the islands of Andaman and Nicobar, reports of unrest and irregularities cast shadows over the world's biggest poll process.
Concerned over high incidents of violence, the Home ministry has asked the Election Commission to conduct the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in 33 Naxal-hit districts in the first phase to ensure maximum security and minimum casualties.
The final figure of polling could increase and it will be available on Tuesday, officials said.
Launching a blistering attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party over the "India Shining" campaign, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday said the balloon of Gujarat's development model will burst.
'The only positive I see are the youth of India who were earlier just after money. The young now want to do something for society.'
'He is in a wheelchair, his joints are swollen and he is in great pain.' A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com speaks to colleagues and students of the polio-afflicted Delhi University Professor G N Saibaba, who was arrested on May 9 for alleged Naxalite links.
Nitin Gadkari and Prakash Javdekar lobbied Jual Oram to change process, that may now open a Pandora's box.
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