While there is every sign of grinding poverty in the villages, the towns of Bastar and Jagdalpur have big and bustling markets.
The gunbattle took place at a forest in Kistaram area bordering Telangana
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.
'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.'
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.
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.
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.
Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com gives the lowdown on the constituencies going to polls in the first phase on April 11.
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.
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.
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."
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).
Bhupesh Baghel revived the Congress in Chhattisgarh after the party's frontline leadership was wiped out in a Maoist attack in 2013.
The incident took place late evening at Kokanara village, nearly 375 km from Raipur, Inspector General of Police (Bastar Range) T J Longkumer said.
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.
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.
'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.
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.
Naxals looted six automatic weapons -- two AK-47s and as many INSAS and self loading rifles -- of the deceased personnel.
Naxal violence in Orissa has also put several investment proposals in jeopardy.
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.
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.
An estimated 53 per cent of the 63.9 lakh voters on Friday exercised their right to franchise in 39 Assembly seats of Naxal-hit Chattisgarh, where polling was held in the first phase, election officials said.While a maximum of 70 per cent turnout was reported in Dhamtari district, 65 per cent of voters cast their ballots in Mahasumund, district electoral officials said.In Maoist-infested Bastar and Dantewara, the turnout was 60 per cent and 45 per cent respectively.
Senior police officers said that the terrorists blew up a CRPF vehicle killing the deputy commandant Diwakar Mahapatra, his driver L Kore Singh and two jawans--N K Jha and S D Burman.
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a group of armed insurgents opened indiscriminate fire on the security officials, triggering a gun-battle between the two sides.
Seven members of a polling team and five Central Reserve Police Force personnel were among 14 killed as Naxals struck twice on Saturday in a break of less than an hour, blowing up a bus and an ambulance in Bijapur and Bastar districts of Chhattisgarh.
This is the fourth IED blast triggered by Naxals in Chhattisgarh in the last 15 days.
"The Maoists blew up a cement-laden truck near Kapsi, about 250 km from the state capital, by triggering a landmine, killing three CSEB employees, including the truck's driver," a police source in Narayanpur told PTI.
Tribals in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh have never been worshippers of Lord Ram. But now, they greet the visitors with Jai Shri Ram, thanks to a well-executed campaign of the saffron brigade in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state. The Katoli relief camp in Dantewada district, housing tribals deserting their habitats following Naxal terror, stands witness to this rapid transformation among the tribals.
In a major breakthrough, Odisha Police have arrested two suspected Maoists who were accused of being involved in the May 25 deadly attack on a Congress convoy in Chhattisgarh.
In Madhya Pradesh, the C-Voter poll projections gave the BJP 107 seats with a vote share of 41.5 per cent, against Congress' vote share of 42.3 per cent and a simple majority of 116 seats.
Six Central Reserve Police Force personnel and 13 Maoists were killed in two separate encounters in Bijapur district, about 565 km from Chhattisgarh, a senior police official said on Monday.
The STF, which will be similar to the 'Grey Hounds' of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, will be imparted advanced training in commando operations and jungle warfare to take on the Maoist rebels in the dense forests.
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