Three police personnel were killed and another injured when Naxals attacked a Doordarshan TV tower in Maoist-hit Bastar district of Chhattisgarh early on Sunday morning.
The Maoist blast took place around 3 pm near Timmapuram village between Silger and Tekalgudem camps of security forces, over 400 km from the state capital Raipur.
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.
Justice Prashant Mishra, a sitting judge of the Chhattisgarh high court, will probe last Saturday's Maoist attack on the Congress leaders. He will submit his report within three months.
Naxal-hit Bastar, which goes to polls on Monday, is witnessing a stiff political battle with Congress going all out to wrest control from BJP of the region widely seen as a deciding factor in winning Chhattisgarh.
A huge haul of explosives, including 15 Improvised Explosive Devices and three pressure bombs, were on Thursday recovered by security forces from separate places averting a massive strike in the Naxal-hit Bastar Parliamentary seat, where about 15 per cent of the electorate cast their votes in the initial hours of polling.
In the first phase covering 20 of the total 90 assembly seats, 223 candidates, including 25 women, are in the fray and as per electoral rolls, 40,78,681 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise.
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.
Naxals on Wednesday shot at a police officer and his son, injuring both critically, in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh. Bastar Superintendent of Police B L Meena said that a group of Naxals attacked Assistant Sub-inspector of Police Prakash Shukla and his son Punit while the two were riding a motorbike to Mardum.
As the comparison between 2014 and 2019 shows, the voter turnout is not only lower than in 2019 but also lower than in 2014 in some of the larger states where polling took place.
Banned outfit Communist Party of India-Maoist Tuesday claimed responsibility for the massacre of Congress leaders in Bastar region and demanded immediate suspension of all operations against it across the country.
Former leader of opposition in Chhattisgarh assembly Mahendra Karma sustained minor injuries after his vehicle was blown up by suspected Naxalss in Dantewada district of the state, police said.
The Raipur police has ruled out involvement of Naxals in the beheading of the jawan of the Central Reserve Police Force, contrary what newspapers reported on Monday morning.
Besides disclosing in their affidavits, candidates have to prominently declare criminal cases they are facing, if any, thrice in newspapers in print as well on television, he said, adding that political parties too have to publish within three days of nomination why a candidate with criminal background was selected. "You (political parties) have to tell the public whether you did not get any (other) candidate and why was it necessary to select them (those with criminal background)," he said.
Jawan who killed 4 colleagues in Chhattisgarh suffered from emotional stress, said CRPF.
Suspected Naxals on Tuesday shot dead a 25-year-old trainee police constable in a crowded market place at Bhansi town in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, the police said.
Vidya Charan Shukla, a Congressman by origin who changed parties and held key portfolios including external affairs, achieved fame during the infamous Emergency as a propagandist for Indira Gandhi's government. Son of illustrious Congressman and freedom fighter Pandit Ravishankar Shukla, the first chief minister of the re-organised Madhya Pradesh, V C Shukla entered Lok Sabha from Mahasamund after winning in the second general elections.
Of the 12 seats in Bastar, the Congress won eight. The BJP had secured 11 of these seats in 2008.
Senior Congress leader V C Shukla, who was injured after heavily-armed Maoists ambushed a convoy of party leaders in Chhattisgarh's Bastar district, was on Sunday airlifted to a hospital in Gurgaon near New Delhi from Raipur
"The voting percentage is likely to go upwards when reports from all polling stations are obtained as polling is scheduled till 6 pm in many constituencies. Final figures will be known on Saturday after the scrutiny of form 17A," the EC said.
'We also urge you to take steps to control the activities of groups, such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh,' said the letter signed by 34 top American lawmakers.
A trip to any of these enchanting waterfalls guarantees a memorable vacation.
The final rites of late Congress leader and founder of controversial anti-Maoist Salwa Judum movement Mahendra Karma were performed with state honours at his native village in Dantewada district on Monday.
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.
It's a single phase polling in Mizoram while first phase of assembly elections is underway in Chhattisgarh.
The state government has released Rs 6 crore for flood relief operations in all the 16 districts of the state.
Maoists on Saturday abducted the collector of Sukma district in Bastar area of Chhattisgarh after killing two of his bodyguards. The left-wing ultras intercepted the vehicle of Sukma Collector Alex Paul Menon, an IAS officer, in Keralapal area of the district while he was returning from a programme, top police officials said.
Shoot-at-sight orders have been issued to security forces deployed across Left Wing Extremism affected states after a 'serious and new' threat of possession and operation of drones by Maoist cadres came to light recently, officials said on Sunday.
Three security personnel were killed and two others injured on Wednesday night when Naxalites blasted a police outpost building at Vishrampuri in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh.
Suspected Naxals on Saturday opened fire at the sons of a Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament from Bastar district in Chhattisgarh, leaving one of them dead. Tansen and Dinesh Kashyap, sons of tribal leader Baliram Kashyap, were shot on Saturday morning in Pairaguda village, a senior police official said. Both were admitted to Maharani Hospital in Jagdalpur, where Tansen succumbed to his injured, police department spokesman Inspector General R K Vij said.
'Defence, development and democracy is the formula to defeat Naxalism.'
CoBRA commando Rakeshwar Singh Manhas went missing after the April 3 ambush in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region.
Hundreds of Central REeserve Police Force troops deployed for anti-naxal operations in Bastar region of Chattisgarh were in for a pleasant surprise when they found their chief K Vijay Kumar in their midst to launch a New Year's eve strike.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Friday said his government will not make public the report of the judicial commission, headed by former judge of Chhattisgarh high court Justice Prashant Mishra, on the May 2013 Jhiram valley Maoist attack, because it is 'incomplete.'
"The car in which Baghel, his gunman and three others were travelling overturned and caught fire near Abhanpur, about 35 km from Raipur," Senior Superintendent of Police B S Maravi told PTI.
The Maoists carried out two dozen blasts in the evening when the motorcycle-borne policemen during an anti-Naxal operation were passing through the Kudur area
Many IEDs explode even when the troops are on foot and their trigger mechanism gets activated just due to the pressure of the feet. These incidents have injured more than 100 personnel over the last two years, the officer said.
Former MLA Ram Dayal Uikey, the BJP nominee from Pali-Tanakhar seat in Korba district, was present in the vehicle when the cash was seized from there, the police official said.
The farmers of 10 villages in Lohandiguda block have now refused to hand over their land for Tata's proposed 5 mtpa steel plant until their 13-point demands are addressed by the administration.
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