'Under the guise of Maoism, the State is presently determined to clear out the whole Bastar area of its tribal population.'
Before the situation in the Naxal-affected areas got out of hand, the Raman Singh government intervened to calm tempers between the police and human rights activists.
Survivors of the Hirakhand Express mishap on Sunday recounted their horrific experience when the trains nine bogies and the engine jumped off the track near Kuneru in Andhra Pradesh.
Tourist destinations have also come under the scanner of Naxalites as rebels detonated a powerful blast at one of the enchanting sites near Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh on Monday morning in a move aimed to unleash a reign of terror among visitors.
While there is every sign of grinding poverty in the villages, the towns of Bastar and Jagdalpur have big and bustling markets.
Tuesday's dastardly ambush of Naxals at Dantewada, which claimed the lives of 75 CRPF jawaans and policemen who were on their return path from an overnight search operation, raises many unanswered questions. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt speaks to local journalists, politicians as she tries to bring forth the flipside of the massacre.
The chronology of major Maoist attacks in the country in the last five years
Of the 76 Central Reserve Police Force personnel who died in the Naxal attack in the Mukrana forests in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, 42 of them hailed from Uttar Pradesh.
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.
A jawan of the special task force of state police was killed in an encounter with the Naxals in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Sukma district on Saturday. The encounter took place at Kondre village under Gadiras police station limits, 400 km from Raipur, Additional Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh told PTI.
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.
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."
The incident took place late evening at Kokanara village, nearly 375 km from Raipur, Inspector General of Police (Bastar Range) T J Longkumer said.
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
Here are the major events that shaped the country in the past 48 hours.
Inspector General of Police (Bastar range) R K Vij told UNI that four constables of the Naga Battalion, accompanied by two special police officers were returning after patrolling duty.
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.
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.
Fifty people were feared killed as Naxalites triggered a powerful blast, targeting two trucks, in which about 100 villagers were returning after attending an anti-Naxal meeting at Darbaguda.
Rahul Gandhi also attacks Modi and RSS in Bastar.
The jawans inadvertently stepped over a pressure IED, triggering the blast that left SI B S Bist and head constable Sudhakar injured.
Chief Minister Ajit Jogi said she will visit the tribal dominated Bastar and Sarguja districts on the first day and address two party rallies in their district headquarters Jagdalpur and Ambikapur.
In 2018, the BJP's rare successes in north-east India aside, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for the party.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is eyeing a fourth straight term in the tribal-dominated state as the opposition Congress seeks to return to power after 15 years.
An assortment of sophisticated weaponry belonging to security personnel, including 10 AK-series rifles, were carried off by the Naxals from the site of the encounter on Monday in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh which left 14 Central Reserve Police Force jawans dead and over a dozen others injured.
Two days after Naxals struck in a big way in Chhattisgarh, the government on Wednesday asserted that there will be no let up in operations to eliminate the Maoist menace and promised all support to the security forces to deal with it firmly.
The skirmish took place in the wee hours in the restive Dabba-Kunna hills when the joint team of the CRPF and STF was out on an anti-Maoist operation.
'In Bastar, as in Delhi, being branded 'anti-national' in the eyes of the government now seems to have acquired new meaning,' says Aakar Patel.
BJP national president Amit Shah asserted that the last 15 years rule of the BJP is a model of an ideal state. "Raman Singh government has successfully tried to contain the Naxal and made the state an education hub. This manifesto is for Naya Chhattisgarh.
Prabhat Singh, who is said to be working for a Hindi national daily, was picked up by the Bastar police on March 21 from Dantewada district and arrested on Tuesday.
Cases of man-made obstructions were discovered at Malda and Dhanbad divisions by alert railway staff in time, thereby averting major derailments
Naxal-hit Bastar, which goes to polls on Monday, is witnessing a stiff political battle with Congress going all out to wrest control from BJP of the region widely seen as a deciding factor in winning Chhattisgarh.
Bad weather and hostile terrain have hampered the evacuation operation in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Sukma district where armed rebels had on Saturday ambushed a team of Special Task Force killing seven personnel.
The commander, identified only as Podia, was on Tuesday gunned down by police in Dantewada district, 450km from Raipur, Superintendent of Police Kamlochan Kashyap told PTI.
The dome over a stage being erected for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's public rally at Naya Raipur on Saturday collapsed in severe storm, forcing cancellation of his engagements there.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday said lack of development in Chhattisgarh has forced some people to adopt the wrong path of Naxalism.
Odisha Police, however, ruled out involvement of Naxals in the Hirakhand mishap.
Railways suspect that tampering of the track near Kuneru station led to the derailment of the train.
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.
Heavy rainfall coupled with strong winds continued to lash several parts of Chhattisgarh on Monday due to cyclone Hudhud, which hit coastal Andhra Pradesh and Odisha on Sunday.
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