Intelligence agencies have information about these dreaded outlaws, but are yet to put a face to most of them.
'When Maoists say that a protracted, violent, armed way is the only way to capture power then what is the way out except confronting them as a state,' asks Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwa Ranjan.
Police sources said bodies of Jagargunda Station House Officer Hemant Singh and four others were recovered from the area
Maoists opened fire on Salwa Judum (anti-Naxal) activists located near camps of the Central Reserve Police Force and police, triggering a gunbattle, and set off an improvised explosive device in Dantewada district on Tuesday. However, there was no immediate report of casualty on either side in the face-off as intermittent exchange of fire continued late into the night, police sources said.
Prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh has reportedly convened a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security at 5 pm on Tuesday to discuss the growing threat of the Naxal terror in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand.
Ten persons, including two Central Reserve Police Force personnel and four special police officers, were killed on Wednesday in a landmine blast triggered by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, police said.The incident took place at Sirguda village in Bastar region under Injram police station area, when Naxals blew up a tractor carrying the special police officers and jawans. The blast occurred when a joint patrol team was returning from their duty.
Additional Director General (Naxal operations) Ram Niwas said that a police team of 145 troopers was on a search operation in the Chintalnaar area, when the Naxals struck.
Home Minister P Chidambaram will make an on-the-spot assessment and review the situation in Chhattisgarh after the Maoists carried out the deadliest attack and killed 76 CRPF personnel.
Forty personnel from the Central Reserve Police Force, involved in Operation Green Hunt, were killed on Tuesday morning when they walked into a trap laid by Maoists at Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh.The attack took place when a CRPF patrol party was returning from a road opening duty in the Naxalite-infested Mukrana forest in the district, at approximately 6 am. The CRPF patrol party was totally taken aback by the Maoists.
Sodi Sambo can now have her treatment done in New Delhi. Five days after the 28-year-old tribal woman from Gompad village in Dantewada district was detained by the Chhattisgarh government on suspicious grounds, the Supreme Court on Friday directed the state administration to permit her to travel to New Delhi.
The toll is likely to mount, as more details were yet to emerge.
Twelve constituencies of Bastar division were among 20 assembly segments in Chhattisgarh that went to the polls in the first phase on November 7. A high voter turnout of 78 per cent was recorded in these 20 seats.
We cannot say that development-related issues are long term while the immediate task is to annihilate the Naxalites.
The incident took place late evening at Kokanara village, nearly 375 km from Raipur, Inspector General of Police (Bastar Range) T J Longkumer said.
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 Centre on Wednesday announced ex-gratia payment of Rs 15 lakh for kin of each of the 75 Central Reserve Police Force men killed in the Naxal attack on Tuesday in Chattisgarh's Dantewada district.
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.
Maoists have called the blockade to protest alleged police atrocities.
About three men and five women escaped and ran to nearby jungles and reached Dornapal relief camp and then informed the police.
But the rebels were well-prepared and violence started almost simultaneously with the voting. Indiscriminate firing from the Maoists disrupted polling in two booths, while an improvised explosive device blast left three policemen injured in another. The Naxalites triggered the blast in Borkha village under Bhejji police station limits in Dantewada. A helicopter has been requisitioned to evacuate the three injured, police sources said
DIG Vishwaranjan and a top CRPF official said there were no casualties from the security personnel team.
Maoists killed three policemen and looted their sophisticated weapons whereas five others are still missing with weapons in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, a top police officer said.
Four persons, including two special police officers, were killed on the spot and four others seriously injured in a landmine blast triggered by Naxalites in Dantewada district early on Thursday.
It is said that the CAF jawans misbehaved with some women while playing Holi in the Konta relief camp, about 475 km from Raipur.
Ever since the Salwa Judum or peace campaign against the Naxalites started on June 4 last year, over 300 villagers have been killed by Maoists.
Police personnel checked vehicles and conducted flag marches at various places in Punjab on Wednesday while central forces maintained a tight vigil in Tripura.
The DD scribe, Dhiraj Kumar said the horrific incident would never fade from his memory.
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.
Five police personnel were killed and 13 others injured as Naxals blew up the bus in which they were traveling in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district on Tuesday, senior police officials said.
The final rites of late Congress leader and founder of controversial anti-Maoist Salwa Judum movement Mahendra Karma were performed with state honours at his native village in Dantewada district on Monday.
The total number of voters in the 20 constituencies are 40,78,681, comprising 19,93,937 male, 20,84,675 female and 69 third-gender persons, they pointed out.
The killed cadres, identified as Vargese and Linga, were allegedly involved in the ambush in which Mandavi and his four security personnel were killed on April 9, Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallava said.
The face-off between a compact team of District Reserve Group and ultras took place in the forested hills of Metapal village, Dantewada Superintendent of Police Kamlochan Kashyap told PTI.
The incident took place in the morning under Jagargunda police station area when a team of the CRPF's 165th battalion was out on an anti-Maoist operation, a police official said.
Voting for 10 constituencies was held from 7 am to 3 pm in 10 seats and from 8 am to 5 pm in the rest 10 segments under a thick security blanket of police and paramilitary personnel in the Naxalite-hit Bastar division.
Three battalions of the Border Security Force comprising more than 3,000 personnel will move across the border from Odisha to Chhattisgarh and an equal number of Indo-Tibetan Border Police units will further move into the Naxal stronghold of Abujhmad as part of a strategy to intensify anti-Maoist operations in their last bastions, official sources said.
It's a single phase polling in Mizoram while first phase of assembly elections is underway in Chhattisgarh.
Cops said during interrogation, they admitted to their involvement in the attack.
The Congress hit back at Modi and accused him of indulging in his 'trademark petty politics' and seeking to hide his 'abject failure and weak-kneed' approach to fighting Naxalism.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday advised students to remain focused on their goals and not to judge their life through the prism of success or failure.
