The Election Commission on Saturday announced the dates for the Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram assembly polls.
The Central Reserve Police Force deployed commandos of the Special Armed Force in the Naxal-infested forests of Dantewada in Chhattisgarh where Maoists had trapped and gunned down 76 security personnel earlier this week.
India celebrated its 71st Republic Day on Sunday with a 90-minute display. The Armed Forces took centre-stage parading an array of weapons and the Defence Research Organisation put up a display of state-of-the-art technology. Here are some of the best moments from Rajpath.
Many in the specialised force feel they are not being treated on par with those in the armed forces. Sahil Makkar reports
A civilian, identified as Kaunsar Riyaz, 45, was killed in the firing, while two Central Reserve Police Force personnel, including an officer, were injured, the officials said.
3 terrorists -- two from the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and one from the Hizbul Mujahideen -- were arrested over the past three days.
Security forces have busted a transit naxal camp following an encounter with the ultras during a search operation conducted in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh and recovered a large cache of arms and explosives, police said.
Heavily armed Naxals on Monday ambushed a Central Reserve Police Force patrol party in the jungles along the Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra border resulting in exchange of gunfire between the two sides.
The ITLF alleged that thousands of weapons looted from state armouries in capital Imphal are being used in the "ethnic cleansing campaign".
Known as 'Sentinels of the North East' and 'Friends of the Hill People', the officers, drawn from the Army, and jawans have been fighting a war of nerves since the ethnic clashes between majority Meitei and hill tribe Kukis erupted on May 3.
A high voter turnout of nearly 71 per cent was recorded till 5 pm on Saturday in West Bengal's four assembly constituencies where bypolls were held, an official said.
'He may be good on a corporate board but he certainly does not make a good home minister in this situation,' says Professor Nandini Sundar, a leading thinker on the Maoist debate.
'He may be good on a corporate board but he certainly does not make a good home minister in this situation,' says Professor Nandini Sundar, a leading thinker on the Maoist debate.
Counting of votes in all elections will be held on May 2.
Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and several other party leaders were detained on Tuesday night as they held a dharna at the Union Rural Development Ministry office in New Delhi demanding a meeting with the minister and released around three hours later.
As the Indian Army reported its first case of the infection with a 34-year-old soldier testing positive in Leh, the Army said it has taken a series of precautionary measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus among the forces such as checking flu symptoms among soldiers on their return from leave and cancelling non-essential travel, conferences and recruitment drives.
Eight wanted Naxals, three of them carrying rewards on their heads, were arrested from separate places in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Bastar region on Thursday, the police said.
The company, whose arm Maruti Suzuki is the largest passenger vehicles maker in India, asserted that it does not align with any political or religious inclination in any part of the world.
A senior security official has claimed that the Maoists had carefully planned the detention of the New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express and the five-hour hostage crisis on Tuesday.
The extension comes three days after the Centre constituted a high-level committee under the chairmanship of Registrar General and Census Commissioner Vivek Joshi with Additional Secretary in the Union Home Ministry Piyush Goyal as its Member-Secretary.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was questioned for over 10 hours by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering probe linked to the National Herald newspaper and was called to depose again on Tuesday, as his party protested across the country, alleging that the Centre was targeting the Opposition by misusing agencies.
'Stress, depression, PTSD and anxiety, especially relating to their domestic lives, are big issues for the men.' 'The men work in extremely difficult conditions, often with the fear of death looming large.'
The Army and Assam Rifles were requisitioned in the night, and along with the state police, the forces arrested the violence by the morning, the spokesperson said.
Maoists opened fire at a makeshift Central Reserve Police Force camp at Bundu in Jharkhand on Tuesday night, leaving a villager dead and a jawan injured, the police said on Wednesday.Armed Maoists attacked the camp located in a school, about 50 km from Ranchi, at approximately 11 pm on Tuesday night, Deputy Inspector General of Police R K Mullick said. "While a CRPF jawan was injured in the firing, a villager was killed. The jawan is out of danger," Mullick said.
A Central Reserve Police Force personnel was killed and five others were wounded in an armed encounter with Maoists near Panchrukhia forests on the borders of Gaya and Aurangabad districts, CRPF Deputy Inspector General Umesh Kumar said on Sunday.
He said the Modi government was trying to take forward the initiatives taken by previous governments.
Among the series of questions raised were how self-loading riffles found their way out of the armoury and came to be used in the firing, how snipers were perched atop vehicles and how persons came to be shot in the face and chest.
The BJP needs to win at least six of the seats to remain in majority in the 225-member assembly (including the Speaker, who has a casting vote), which would still have two vacant seats -- Maski and R R Nagar.
The security forces launched a cordon and search operation in the Pinjora area of the district in South Kashmir this morning after receiving information about the presence of terrorists there, a police official said.
The Imphal Valley in Manipur, which remained peaceful for most of Friday, witnessed sporadic clashes later in the day as more security forces were rushed in from other states by road and air to calm down a state which had witnessed bloody ethnic rioting over the last 48 hours.
Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde arrived in Jammu for a day's visit on Tuesday to review the security situation in the wake of the increased ceasefire violations on the International Border by Pakistan.
All equipment from the Army which were part of the Republic Day celebrations are made-in-India, Chief of Staff Delhi Area Maj Gen Bhavnish Kumar had earlier said.
Lieutenant General B S Raju, who will take over as the new DGMO, handed over the charge of the strategic XV Corps of the Army, which guards the Line of Control in Kashmir Valley, to Lt Gen D P Pandey.
A set of new standard operating procedures have been issued by the force headquarters in Delhi for vehicle-mounted movement of troops in Jammu and Kashmir, and it has also been ordered that the 'passenger manifest discipline' for each vehicle in the convoy be strictly adhered to.
Rajasthan is all set to vote on Saturday to elect members of a new assembly with the Bharatiya Janata Party aiming to unseat the ruling Congress, which is fighting hard to change the trend of alternate governments in the state.
Which entrepreneur would willingly part with her or his hard-earned money for grasping, self-serving politicians? asks Debashis Basu.
CoBRA commando Rakeshwar Singh Manhas went missing after the April 3 ambush in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region.
The people of West Bengal have lost faith in the state police and therefore their demand for deployment of central forces, Nayak said.
Four persons, three Central Reserve Police Force personnel including an assistant commandant and a suspected Maoist were killed in an encounter in Bihar's east Champaran district on Wednesday night.
The official also said that "re-polling will be held in booth no 126/5 in Sitalkuchi area" of the district, in view of the tragic incident.
