Three Maoists were killed in a fierce encounter with security forces in a forest area of Odisha's Rayagada district, police said on Friday.
According to police sources, Maoist rebels attacked Bamdah Bazaar under Chandramandi police station killing two traders and injuring some others.
Odisha government, grappling with the hostage crisis, on Tuesday said some demands made by Maoists like halt to combing operations, have been conceded as prospects of the release of the lone Italian national seemed to have brightened.
A lack of understanding on how to tackle the Maoist challenge is adversely affecting security operations on the ground and not the inefficiency or inability of the security forces to put pressure on the Maoists, says former Chhattisgarh top cop Vishwa Ranjan.
A controversy erupted on Tuesday after the opposition parties tagged a video of DMK leader A Raja purportedly showing him making remarks that India has never been a nation, but a subcontinent with diverse practices and cultures, prompting strong response from the BJP which described the comments as a call for 'balkanisation' of the the country and demanded for his arrest.
Would the Maoists lose the support of the middle-class and urban intelligentsia by continuing to use kidnapping as a propaganda tool? Dr P V Ramana analyses
The Nepal Maoists on Tuesday began a process for fresh recruitment to its guerrilla force to counter the move of the national army to fill vacancies, a decision that threatens to derail the fragile peace process in the Himalayan nation.
In the footage, which was aired by a private news channel, Maoists' Karnataka state committee chief Chandrashekhar Gorebal said the Maoists were now attempting to spread around the Western Ghats in Karnataka.
Three Maoists were killed on Monday in an encounter by Special Task Force personnels assisted by Cobra battalion of Central Reserve Police Force in Bihar's Rohtas district.
Art of Living founder Sri Ravi Shankar on Friday had a talk with Maoist leader, Chakradhar Mahato, and persuaded the group to lay down their arms.
A high alert has been sounded in all 14 police station areas in Orissa's Kandhamal district following the revelation by an arrested Maoist that an attack by the ultras was being planned. The Maoist, Jagannath Nayak, was arrested from village Kerubadi under Daringbadi police station five days ago. He has told interrogators that 150 Koya Kondh Maoists from neighbouring Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand were being trained in the jungles of Kandhamal for the operation.
The attackers snatched the walkie-talkie of the station master, and forced staff of a goods train standing outside the station to shut down the engine.
The Maoists on Friday demanded an independent probe into the circumstances leading to the death of their top leader Kishenji in West Midnapore district.
A cache of weapons was recovered from the encounter site
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Two days after four Maoist leaders were killed in Sadiya in eastern Assam bordering Arunachal Pradesh in first ever major operation against Maoists in the state, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Friday said that the Maoists have already set up bases in all upper Assam districts and were expanding towards other parts of the state.
Nepali Maoists have infiltrated into India with the locals spotting such cadres in Orissa's Malkangari district bordering Chhattisgarh where 53 securitymen and two civilians were killed in the last three weeks. "We have received information about infiltration by Nepali Maoists, but nothing can be confirmed unless they are nabbed," a senior intelligence officer said, adding that Nepal sometime ago had indicated to India that a section of Maoists could cross over.
The government has noticed "minimal" presence of Maoists in the northeast region, Home Minister P Chidambaram told the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. "In recent months, we have noticed minimal presence of Maoists in northeast," he said during Question Hour.
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Heavily armed Maoists torched 32 vehicles, including tankers and containers, on the Grand Trunk Road in Gaya district on the first day of the two-day Bihar and Jharkhand bandh called by the extremists against the killing of their woman leader.
"It is wrong to link us with the Indian Maoist movement, he said. There is no involvement (of Nepalese Maoists) in the Indian Maoists' movement," the party's senior leader, Baburam Bhattarai, told media-persons.
The Union Home Ministry has drawn up surrender policy for Maoists. It is likely to be a dream project of the United Progressive Alliance. This policy will help "attract the Maoist to reject arms and draw them towards discussion"
Maoists abducted and hacked to death a panchayat samiti member and another person at Paharpur in Bihar's Jamui district on Tuesday, police sources said. Maoists raided Rajaun village, abducted panchayat samiti member Arjun Paswan and Rajaun village PACS chief Vishnudeo Yadav and took them to Paharpur and hacked them to death, the sources said. A combing operation has been launched.
The ruling Congress, voted to office in 2018 after 15 years in opposition, and the Bharatiya Janata Party are the main contenders for power in the state, where the Aam Aadmi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and some regional outfits are also in the fray.
With Maoists striking at will, the Cabinet Committee of Security on Thursday approved the government's new plan to counter Maoists, under which the infested states will have an effective coordination and the police will take a lead role.The CCS, presided by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, gave the clearance to the plan, a day after Union Home Minister P Chidambaram warned the Maoists to abjure violence or face action.
Communist Party of India on Sunday condemned the killing of 27 people in a Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh, saying that violence and killings do not have a place in democracy.
There is a "high probability" of political leaders coming under a Chhatisgarh-type attack during their panchayat poll campaign in Maoist-hit Jangalmahal in West Bengal, intelligence sources here have indicated.
The home ministry's decision to agree to talk with the Maoists without pre-conditions may be the first steps to tackling the problem, writes P V Ramana.
Social activist Gautam Navlakha, accused of having links to Maoists and Pakistan's spy agency ISI, on Friday withdrew from the Supreme Court his application seeking to be shifted to Delhi from Mumbai under house arrest.
The ceasefire will come into effect from Monday evening and would continue till further notice.
A large number of Maoists have been killed and four policemen were missing in the continuing gunbattle between security forces and the militants, who killed 15 people on Friday, in the Ganjam-Kandhamal border area of Orissa, official sources said.
'Their brains trust has been severely depleted. The situation at the senior level is really bad,' a senior intelligence official said.
Deputy Inspector General of Police Sheetal Oraon said the policemen were on patrol duty when a group of Maoists fired indiscriminately on their vehicle killing three of them on the spot.
Claiming that Maoists were planning to kill her, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Wednesday dared them to touch her, saying they can't scare her with guns.
In a blow to the Naxals, top Maoist leader Kanchan has been arrested along with two others from the outskirts of Kolkata. Kanchan, one of the top Maoist leaders after Kishenji, had planned and implemented the Lalgarh movement in November 2008. The Maoist Central committee member, who was wanted in several cases of sedition, was arrested by the Special Task force of the police on Friday. "Yes, we have arrested Kanchan from Kolkata," said a police official.
A Central Reserve Police Force jawan of the specialised COBRA unit was killed and a Deputy Commandant injured in a fierce encounter with Maoists at Chiklam village in Jharkhand's Naxal-hit Ghatsila sub-division on Wednesday.
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