The personnel belonging to the CRPF's elite Commando Battalion for Resolute Action unit, the District Reserve Guard and the Special Task Force were involved in the operation.
In a major joint offensive, separate joint teams of security forces, comprising over 2,000 personnel, had launched an anti-Naxal operation from Bijapur and Sukma districts in the South Bastar forests, considered as the Maoist stronghold, on Friday night.
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.
'Sanction serves the salutary object of providing safeguard to the accused from unwarranted prosecution and the agony and trauma of trial, and in the context of the stringent provisions of the UAPA, is an integral facet of due process of law.' If the report to the sanctioning officer for the first five accused in the case lacked the qualities required under the law, then for Professor Saibaba, the sanction came much after his trial had started!
Home ministry officials, who visited Chhattisgarh after the massacre of 25 CRPF men by Naxals, have found that the majority of 45,000 paramilitary personnel undertaking the high-risk anti-Naxal operations in Bastar region have been posted there for over three years.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Saturday returned to Raipur from Delhi, a day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi met him for the second time in a week in a bid to resolve the power tussle between him and state health minister T S Singh Deo.
The Wire news portal, in the third part of its revelations from the international collaborative journalistic investigation called the Pegasus Project, reported that those marked as potential targets for surveillance include Ambedkarite activist Ashok Bharti; academic and chronicler of life in Naxal-dominated regions Bela Bhatia; railway union leader Shiv Gopal Mishra and Delhi-based labour rights activist Anjani Kumar.
Heavy rainfall coupled with strong winds continued to lash several parts of Chhattisgarh on Monday due to cyclone Hudhud, which hit coastal Andhra Pradesh and Odisha on Sunday.
Congress's Devti Karma won the bypoll for the seat, reserved for Scheduled Tribes, by a margin of 11,192 votes, a poll official said.
The activist claimed during her arrest her autonomy was violated and her photographs were splashed all over the news. "My actions were pronounced guilty -- not in the court of law, but on flat screens by seekers of TRPs," Ravi lamented.
Sources in the state Congress said that several party MLAs and ministers, who are close to Baghel, already reached Delhi on Thursday, while many legislators, ministers and senior leaders went to the national capital this morning.
Laxmi Sorte and Kaustav Ghosh are on a 101-day road trip across India to support and encourage local businesses affected by the pandemic.
'Under the guise of Maoism, the State is presently determined to clear out the whole Bastar area of its tribal population.'
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.
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.
According to BJP insiders, every Union minister has been given 3-4 seats to mentor and has been told to work hard on these constituencies in the next 20 months to ensure the party's victory.
Roads are of great importance to win the war against the rebels in Sukma
Ahead of Home Minister Rajnath Singh's visit to Chhaittisgarh on Saturday, security forces have recovered two powerful tiffin bombs from Naxal-hit Sukma district's Dornapal region.
The M-17 helicopter was forced to land in south Bastar after it evaded Naxal gunfire but developed hydraulic problems. The IAF crew left behind the operator and the damaged helicopter, raising a question mark on the decision of pilot and co-pilot.
Acting Director General of the CRPF, Sudeep Lakhtakia said the ambush has "naturally called for the revision of standard operating procedures" in these areas.
Earlier, in a major joint offensive, separate teams of nearly 600 personnel belonging to the District Reserve Guard (DRG), Special Task Force (STF) and Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) -- an elite unit of Central Reserve Police Force, launched an anti-Naxal operation from three sides towards Elmagunda after getting inputs about a huge gathering of ultras there on Saturday.
Kidnapped Sukma collector Alex Paul Menon's friend and collector of Bastar district in Chhattisgarh, Ponnusamy Anbalagan, speaks to A Ganesh Nadar
Kidnapped Sukma collector Alex Paul Menon's friend and collector of Bastar district in Chhattisgarh, Ponnusamy Anbalagan, speaks to A Ganesh Nadar
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.
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the repeal of the farm laws, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday urged him not to share the stage with Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra during the directors general of police conference in Lucknow keeping in mind farmers' interest.
Each Bhabha Kavach has four hard armour plates, which protect the wearer from the front, back, and either side. It can protect CAPF personnel from 7.62 mm bullets fired from AK-47 rifles -- the chosen weapon of terrorists from Kashmir to Bastar.
A new Congress leader may make an electoral impact by his very presence. Congress voters who had moved away from the party, after being influenced by the BJP's 'family rule' campaign, can now return with a certain moral satisfaction, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Manhas went missing after the April 3 gunfight between Naxals and security personnel near Sukma-Bijapur border.
'They try and extend the hostage situation as long as they can to remain in the national headlines.'
A rare video footage of Maoists purportedly showing the rebels conducting a 'commando-style' training to gun down helicopters, used to ferry security personnel and VIPs in Chhattisgarh's worst insurgency-hit Bastar region, has been recovered by the police.
Over 100 Naxals on Wednesday ambushed a team of security forces in Chhattisgarh's tribal belt of Bastar on the eve of Lok Sabha polls, killing three commandos of CRPF's CoBRA battalion and injuring five others including two officers in twin attacks.
Bastar Collector Amit Kataria, who last week was pulled up by the Chhattisgarh government for violation of dress code and protocol while receiving Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the state on May 9, has reportedly explained his position on the issue.
They said the IED blast took place in the Chintalnar forest area of the district around 9 pm on Saturday and the injured personnel were evacuated by a Mi-17 V5 helicopter of the Indian Air Force around midnight.
At one location, seven bodies of the troops were recovered and the tree trunks bore bullet shots, indicating that a fierce gun battle took place in the area.
The complainant had claimed that Sundar and others had visited Nama village and asked Shamnath to support the naxal cause
The face-off between a compact team of District Reserve Group and ultras took place in the forested hills of Metapal village, Dantewada Superintendent of Police Kamlochan Kashyap told PTI.
A day after polling in Chattisgarh's Bastar Lok Sabha seat, two security personnel were on Friday injured in a pressure bomb blast carried out by Naxals in the insurgency-hit Bijapur district of the region, 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.
Rahul Gandhi also attacks Modi and RSS in Bastar.
