The next year is likely to pose a bigger challenge to the counter-insurgency operation in Chhattisgarh where the Communist Party of India-Maoist is planning to observe its 10th year of foundation and is being feared to unite all Naxal groups in the country to carry out major 'events'.
The banned Communist Party of India-Maoist on Wednesday dismissed allegations levelled by the Marxists on the nexus between the Trinamool Congress and the rebels, saying the proscribed outfit did not have any relations with the Mamata Banerjee-led party.
Chhattisgarh, carved out of Madhya Pradesh in November 2000, is confronting the menace for decades with 12 of its 16 districts in the Naxals' grip.
The Maoists exploded IEDs on the tracks between Nishitpur and Matari railway stations late Sunday night, according to Divisional Operative Manager Ved Prakash.
Addressing media persons in New Delhi, Chidambaram said: "It was a somewhat bizarre offer. That is because, barely 3 hours after the so-called offer, the CPI (Maoist) attacked a joint patrol party of the West Bengal police and the CRPF in PS Lalgarh, district West Midnapore. The patrol party retaliated and three people were killed."
Three Central Reserve Police Force commandos, who formed the strike squad that killed top Maoist leader Kishenji, have been named for President's police medals for gallantry on the eve of Republic Day.
The BJP's bandh call, separately endorsed by the Maoists, was meant to mark protest against the delay in the formation of separate Telangana state by the Congress-led UPA government. However, the bandh evoked mixed response though the BJP leaders and activists went around the towns and cities across Telangana to enforce the call.
A trade union leader, arrested in the capital during investigations into Maoist network, was the Delhi chief of proscribed Communist Party of India-Maoist who was looking after party operations in the city, police sources said on Wednesday.
An instance of a foreigner extending support to the Communist Party of India (Maoist) and its front organisations has come to notice, the government said on Wednesday.
Prasant Majhi (23), who claimed to have worked as a bodyguard of Panda for the last over two years, surrendered without any weapons before the Superintendent of Police of Gajapati district Sarthak Sarangi.
. The party's senior most leader and politburo member Azad alias Cherukuri Rajkumar has mysteriously gone missing and the organisation has alleged that Rajkumar was caught by the Special Investigations Bureau of Andhra Pradesh police and his life was under grave threat.
According to media reports, abducted Biju Janata Dal Member of Legislative Assembly Jhina Hikaka will be released on Thursday in Koraput district of Odisha at 10 am. Reports say that the decision was taken at a Maoist 'people's court'. The Naxals have also asked Hikaka to 'resign'.
Top Naxal leader Kobad Ghandy, accused of trying to set up a base for his banned outfit Communist Party of India-Maoist in New Delhi, was absolved on Wednesday of stringent charges under the anti-terror law by a Delhi court, which put him on trial for alleged offences of impersonation, cheating and forgery.
Maoists on Monday night named three negotiators to talk to the Odisha government on the Italian hostage crisis even as they set a fresh 24-hour deadline for acceptance of 13 demands including withdrawal of cases against the ultras.
Chhattisgarh: Three naxals killed in encounter
Police stations across Jharkhand have been alerted following the Communist Party of India-Maoist's two-day 'Bharat bandh' from May 21.
The Maoists on Tuesday claimed that Kobad Gandhy, a politburo member of the Communist Party of India-Maoist, was arrested soon after his return from the "guerrilla zone" and a "weak element" in their party gave information to police about his movements.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad on Wednesday announced the arrest of a key Naxalite cadre who was arrested two days ago from Thane.
The Chhattisgarh government on Wednesday opposed the petition of rights activist Binayak Sen in the Supreme Court seeking bail and stay on his life term for his links with Maoists saying he was involved in providing safe hideouts and logistic support to hardcore Naxalites.
A police constable was killed while two others including a Central reserve Police Force personnel were injured in a landmine blast triggered by Communist party of India-Maoist at Dainmari in Naxal-hit Ghatsila sub-division of East Singhbhum district on Thursday.
The reference to CRPP as a Maoist front organisation came in a written reply in Rajya Sabha by Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Home Affairs.
Is the number 3 rank in the Communist Party of India (Maoist) hierarchy jinxed? Two top Naxal leaders -- Kishenji and Azad -- have been killed by the security forces while holding the same position.
To step up the pressure on the banned Naxalite outfit the Communist Party of India-Maoist, the Andhra Pradesh government has announced cash reward worth lakhs of rupees for information on 474 Maoist cadres. The wanted activists include underground extremists, senior members of the central committee and squad members. The list, issued by the government recently, includes 87 new names. The govt has announced a reward of Rs 12 lakh for party general secretary Muppal Lakshman.
Toral Varia and photographer Reuben Verghese report on an emerging trend in the red bastions of Odisha's Keonjhar district: The rebels return home.
A 27-year-old suspected Maoist, wanted in several cases of murder and attack on police teams, was arrested in Delhi. Shiv Kumar alias Shiva, a cadre of the Communist Party of India Maoist, who hails from Jharkhand's Ranchi and is an expert in handling landmines and sophisticated arms, was apprehended by the Delhi Police's Crime Branch from Rohini on Wednesday.
Just like veteran Marxist leader and former West Bengal Chief Minister Joyti Basu, a senior Maoist leader, who is currently lodged in a Bihar jail has offered to donate his body for medical research.
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
Serious brainstorming at the national level is fast becoming a necessity to deal with this phenomenon of abductions by the Maoists. The home ministry's hands-off approach is certainly not what India needs at the moment, says Bibhu Prasad Routray.
Though Andhra Pradesh police has not confirmed the arrest of Sattanna so far, Revolutionary Writer Association founder Varavara Rao alleged that the Maoist leader was taken into custody by a special police party from Angamaly in Ernakulam district in Kerala on a specific tip-off.
Three Maoists have been shifted to Bhagalpur jail from the central jail in Motihari, Bihar, following reports that they might escape, officials said. The three -- Communist Party of India-Maoist north Bihar zonal committee's self-styled secretary Musafir Sahni, Jai Mangal Thakur and Ram Parvesh Baitha -- were shifted to the Bhagalpur jail on Wednesday evening
A joint team of the Border Security Force and the Chhattisgarh police on Friday busted a bomb-making unit of the banned Communist Party of India - Maoist and seized around 300 kg of explosives and equipment used for assembling IEDs. A joint team of the BSF, Special Task Force and Kanker district police raided a Maoist hideout in the forest between Beenagunda and Uchhekoti villages in Abuzamad area, where they came under hostile fire, said Kanker district police chief.
The attacks by the Communist Party of India-Maoist, whether opportunistic or pre-planned, are part of their strategy of an 'armed liberation struggle' and in furtherance of their goal of 'seizure of political power through a protracted people's war', says Home Minister P Chidambaram.
Accepting that it suffered casualties in the Narayanpur encounter, Maoists said on Friday that three of their commanders were killed in the retaliatory fire by the Central Reserve Police Force.
In the footage, which was aired by a private news channel, Maoists' Karnataka state committee chief Chandrashekhar Gorebal said the Maoists were now attempting to spread around the Western Ghats in Karnataka.
The Centre is keen on a probe to find out if the violence in the Maruti plant in Manesar has any Maoist link.
The government on Tuesday said terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba and the Maoists had undertaken extensive reconnaissance of power plants in several states in a bid to attack Central Industrial Security Force armouries located there. Besides LeT, there are also reports of Communist Party of India - Maoist having undertaken extensive reconnaissance to target the CISF armouries located in some power plants," Minister of State for Home Affairs Mullappally Ramachandran said.
In the final segment of a four-part interview, Communist Party of India-Maoist general secretary Ganapathy says the Maoists are prepared to come to the table for talks provided the government agrees to their main demands.
Welcoming the Maoist announcement of a 72-day ceasefire, the intellectuals under the aegis of 'Citizens Initiative for Peace' said, "this opportunity should not be missed. Armed operations by government and Maoists should cease immediately, so that dialogue can begin."
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