Varanasi, the high-profile election battleground that goes to polls on Monday has virtually turned into a fortress.
A group of 101 farmers will march to Delhi on Friday from the Shambhu border protest site, farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher has said. The march will begin at 1 p.m. and the group will face heavy police and security presence. The farmers are demanding a legal guarantee for minimum support price of crops, a farm debt waiver, pension for farmers and farm labourers, no hike in electricity tariff, withdrawal of police cases and "justice" for the victims of the 2021 Lakhimpur Kheri violence. The farmers have been camping at the Shambhu and Khanauri border points between Punjab and Haryana since February 13 after their march to Delhi was stopped by security forces.
The Union Budget 2025-26 on Saturday allocated Rs 2,33,210.68 crore to the Ministry of Home Affairs with the majority of the fund -- Rs 1,60,391.06 crore -- being given to central police forces like Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) which are responsible for internal security, border guarding and security of vital installations.
After allegations of sexual harassment by a group of female CRPF personnel, the force conducted an investigation and determined his guilt, sources said.
In a first, central paramilitary forces will be deployed at all 62,779 polling stations during the 5-phase Bihar assembly polls, the Election Commission said on Monday.
Two paramilitary force personnel allegedly committed suicide in Dhubri and Chirang districts of Assam on Saturday.
The meeting also decided that the two states will 'work out arrangement in coordination' with the centre to facilitate the functioning of the central peace-keeping force besides agreeing to continue talks to resolve the border dispute, according to top Mizoram officials.
The interim budget 2024-25 on Thursday allocated Rs 202868.70 crore to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) with the highest share of funds going to the paramilitary forces like Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF) and Central Industrial Secular Force (CISF), showing priority on internal security and border guarding.
He had a contingent of about 22-24 armed CRPF commandos who used to move with him every time he travelled in West Bengal.
The move comes after terrorists gunned down two labourers and critically wounded another one in Kulgam in South Kashmir on Sunday evening.
The first batch of pilgrims reached Kashmir on Friday for the annual Amarnath Yatra, beginning Saturday, with J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha flagging off 4,603 yatris in the morning from the Bhagwati Nagar Yatri Niwas base camp in Jammu under a tight security cover.
Shah, who is closely monitoring the situation in Manipur, had a telephonic conversation with Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, who briefed him in the morning about the prevailing scene in the state and steps being taken to restore normalcy.
"Anti-Naxal strategy is a flop strategy. It is totally flop. Somebody has picked up the strategy from some book and forced it down on the paramilitary forces, who are obedient servants and they never objected to what is thrust on them," K P S Gill, who was ex-security advisor to the Chhattisgarh government, said.
The reservation would include a 10 per cent horizontal quota for Agniveers in the posts of constable, mining guard, forest guard, jail warden, and special police officers.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has cancelled all his programmes for the upcoming assembly elections in Karnataka in the wake of clashes reported in parts of Manipur, sources said.
'The central government forces are supporting one group and the state government forces are supporting another group and this is resulting in non-stop cross-firing, which has resulted in the killing of many innocent people.'
Ten Manipur tribal MLAs Thursday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to withdraw Assam Rifles from security duties in the violence-hit state, saying its personnel have been putting their lives at risks to create buffer zones between the two warring communities.
The West Bengal government had written to the Centre seeking extended deployment of CAPF till December 25, but was told that out of the 15 companies present, 10 would be withdrawn on October 15 and the rest by October 20.
The CBI during its probe got inputs of a large cache of arms hidden in Sandeshkhali. On Friday morning, a CBI team started a search operation during which the arms, including foreign-made pistols, were seized, the officials said.
The agency will also record Kavitha's statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
In one of the deadliest blows to Naxalites in Chhattisgarh, security forces on Sunday gunned down 31 rebels, including 11 women, in a fierce encounter in the state's Bijapur district, police said.
Observing that law and order was a "state subject", a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra stayed the Calcutta high court order restraining the Centre from relocating the paramilitary forces from the state's strife-torn districts and asked the state government to respond to the Centre's appeal within a week.
Singh has served as the chief sports officer of the CRPF and won a silver medal at the 1986 Seoul Asian Games in the 200-metre butterfly event, which was India's first medal in swimming at the tournament since its 1951 edition.
In the wake of repeated attacks by Maoists on the Central Reserve Police Force, the government is working out a plan for the redeployment of paramilitary forces engaged in anti-Naxal operations in states.
The Assam Rifles has a skeletal presence of women and the officials feel that they are not trained for a law-and-order situation.
The plan to relieve NSG from VIP security tasks has been in the making since 2012 when NSG commanders foresaw an event where simultaneous terror attacks could be witnessed at one time on multiple centres in the country and the commandos will have to be rushed in different directions.
A leading Kuki-Zo organisation in Manipur has demanded a judicial probe into the killing of 10 youths in a gunfight with the CRPF, raising questions about the paramilitary force's neutrality. The Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF) also reiterated its demand for a separate administration for the Kuki-Zo community in the state, where ethnic violence between Kuki tribals and Meiteis has claimed over 250 lives since May last year. The ITLF claimed the post-mortem reports showed the youths were shot from the back, suggesting they were not engaged in a gunfight when they were killed. The organisation further alleged that CRPF personnel stationed nearby refused to intervene during an attack on Zairawn village, where a woman was killed. The ITLF has called for a political solution to the ongoing conflict, urging the Union Home Minister to consider a separate administration for the Kuki-Zo people.
Till Sunday, the IAF had received 56,960 applications under the scheme.
'Look at the post mortem reports. Every body (of the 10 Kuki-Zo youth who were killed) has almost 12 bullet marks on it.' 'Why do they have to fire so much even if they wanted to kill them?' 'One or two shots would be enough to kill them. Why then they had to fire so many bullets on them?'
Arunima Sinha, the country's first amputee to conquer Mt Everest, will soon be a police officer.
The police on Saturday claimed to have gunned down eight Maoists during an encounter in forests near Kutul-Farasbeda and Kodtameta villages in the district.
The Government on Tuesday said paramilitary forces could be spared in the month of April to provide security in the Indian Premier League (IPL) but would be a problem in May. Jaiswal said although security threats always exist but if the IPL functionaries give a suitable schedule, things could be worked out.
Representatives of the Committee on Mass Protest against Assam Rifles organised sit-ins to protest against the paramilitary force's legal notice to Republican Party of India-Athawale national secretary Maheshwar Thounaojam for harming the "reputation of the organisation".
Mann said this after a meeting in New Delhi with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who assured him of all assistance from the central government.
Moving beyond selling application forms, the Department of Posts has started offering a complete package to agencies and companies for their recruitment process.
'When so many young Baloch men and women are willingly volunteering as fighters and even suicide bombers.'
How to conduct the mock exercise with active public participation of people was discussed threadbare at a high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan. Top civil and police officers of the country participated in the meeting, official sources said.
Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari has written to Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla requesting that the adequate provision of Central security forces be made and kept ready if needed, and alleged that police remained a 'mute spectator' while offices and homes of some dissident MLAs were vandalised.
The MHA asked all state governments to set up a committee for examining requirements of central armed police forces by keeping in view the internal security, intelligence inputs and availability of central forces in nearby locations.
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