The Chhattisgarh government has unleashed a "soft" tactic in its war against the Naxals - residential schools for poor children. Devjyot Ghoshal travels to Dantewada, Bastar and Sukma to see for himself
'There is need to invent another enemy.' 'If you can add Maoists to Muslims, the tukde-tukde thread will tie in nicely.' 'You might even have a 'nation in grave danger' story by the summer of 2019,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
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
70 per cent voting was recorded across 18 constituencies of Bastar and Rajnandgaon till 3 pm in the first phase of assembly election in Chhattisgarh, where violence by Naxals who have called for a poll boycott left a Central Reserve Police Force jawan dead.
'This is for the first time that a strong, solid evidence-based investigation has happened.' 'It can meet international standards and put the onus on the Pakistanis.'
Rahul Gandhi attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Chhattisgarh for its failure to act against Maoists responsible for killing many Congress leaders in May.
A Chhattisgarh Armed Force jawan was killed by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Sukma district on Saturday. Constable Shivkumar Sidar was unwell for the last few days and was going for treatment to Dornpal from Temelwada in a bus where he was abducted by a group of Maoists and was killed, Inspector General, Bastar Range SRP Kalluri, said.
With Naxals watching the highways, cash to Bastar banks comes via copter.
'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.
An AK-47 rifle, one SLR, three Insas rifles and a .303 rifle were also recovered from the encounter spot.
The gunbattle took place at a forest in Kistaram area bordering Telangana
The families of policemen being held hostage by Maoists in Bhopalpatnam, near the Chhattisgarh- Andhra Pradesh border, have appealed for their release without delay. Maoists abducted the seven policemen last Sunday, including an assistant sub inspector, a special police officer and three constables. The bodies of three policemen were recovered a day later from a dense forest in Bijapur District of Bastar region. Four are still missing.
Two Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed and another was injured in an encounter with Maoists in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Bijapur district on Sunday, the police said.
The explosion took place in a hilly area in Bacheli in Dantewada when the personnel were returning to their camp after purchasing groceries from market.
Fearing leakage of their strategies ahead of Lok Sabha polls, Naxals are keeping a close watch on people who could act as informers and pass on information using mobile phones in villages of their hot-bed Bastar.
Tourist destinations have also come under the scanner of Naxalites as rebels detonated a powerful blast at one of the enchanting sites near Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh on Monday morning in a move aimed to unleash a reign of terror among visitors.
While there is every sign of grinding poverty in the villages, the towns of Bastar and Jagdalpur have big and bustling markets.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, used by United States' forces to track down Taliban militants, successfully flew over the dense forests of Bastar in Chhattisgarh in the first trial run for anti-Naxal operations.
'No one is saying that the police can become the solution, the police have to become the first respondent to create a situation where other people can enter,' says Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwa Ranjan.
The Naxals on Wednesday carried out two powerful blasts in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, injuring two Central Reserve Police Force personnel. The blast comes a day before Lok Sabha polls in the area.
Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com gives the lowdown on the constituencies going to polls in the first phase on April 11.
The first prime minister to visit this Maoist hotbed in three decades, Narendra Modi on Saturday asked Naxals to abjure gun and allow peace so that the macabre drama of death will end to pave the way for development.
'Operation Green Hunt is nothing but an operation to get the tribals out of their villages. The paramilitary forces and Salwa Judum are attacking innocent old men, women and children,' says Gandhian Himanshu Kumar.
Activists Arundhati Roy and Himanshu Kumar slam a newspaper report that Lingaram Kodopi, a tribal from Dantewada, is the mastermind behind last week's Maoist attacks in Bastar.
'Both of them want to cow down people who are daring them, demanding justice for the tribals and are not following their agendas in Chhattisgarh,' says Lingaram Kodopi, who the state police has branded a Maoist.
The Maoists have constituted 'Baal Action Teams' to deploy school children in different capacities in their attempt to regroup the child cadres and boost their perceived military strength.
Bhupesh Baghel revived the Congress in Chhattisgarh after the party's frontline leadership was wiped out in a Maoist attack in 2013.
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.
Additional Sessions Judge Reetesh Singh allowed Khalid to travel to the city from May 20 to 23 to attend panel discussion organised by Bastar Solidarity Network (Kolkata Chapter).
On July 16, a senior National Mineral Development Corporation official was traveling towards Chhattisgarh's Bailadila hills, where a major iron ore excavation project is going on. Just 20 kms from Jagdalpur, which is the district headquarters of the Bastar plateau, his vehicle was stopped in the middle of the night by some Maoist cadres. He was asked to step out of the car, and after he was thoroughly frisked and his vehicle checked, he was allowed to go.
At the local level, resentment has risen over the rampant corruption in payment of money for tribal land, acquisition of arable land (half the land sought to be acquired for industry in Orissa, for instance, happens to be farmland) and lack of any support for resettlement of the displaced.
Investment in infrastructure was necessary for the economy, as power shortages, inadequate transport and poor connectivity affect overall growth performance, as per the Economic Survey 2019-20 tabled in Parliament by Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. "To achieve GDP of USD 5 trillion by 2024-25, India needs to spend about USD 1.4 trillion (Rs 100 lakh crore) over these years on infrastructure so that a lack of infrastructure does not become a constraint to growth," it said.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Monday declared his government's full support to Salwa Judum, the forest dwellers' peace movement against Naxalite violences, and promised to take steps to secure their livelihood. In his Republic Day speech after hoisting the national flag at Jagdalpur, the headquarters of Bastar division, the Chief Minister said, "it was because of such people and their movement that the country's Republic is secured today."
'If you put colour-coded internal security maps of India in May 2014 and now, the picture won't be flattering to Modi.' 'Failures on internal security are now piling up and can break Modi's momentum,' says Shekhar Gupta.
The incident took place late evening at Kokanara village, nearly 375 km from Raipur, Inspector General of Police (Bastar Range) T J Longkumer said.
Naxals looted six automatic weapons -- two AK-47s and as many INSAS and self loading rifles -- of the deceased personnel.
With an aim of countering the 'anti-developmental' propaganda of Maoists, the Central Reserve Police Force has devised a new strategy of putting up hoardings in local dialect to seek tribals' support in construction of a National Highway in Chhattisgarh's worst insurgency-hit Sukma district.
Polling in sensitive areas in Chhattisgarh's Maoist-dominated Bastar region, where the first phase of Assembly elections were held on Friday, was closed by 3 pm so that the Election Commission officials could wrap up and reach their respective district headquarters by Friday night.
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.
Ahead of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's rallies in Chhattisgarh on Wednesday, security forces averted a possible landmine explosion, as they diffused two Improvised Explosive Devices weighing 50 kg in the Dantewada area of the state.
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