'Sujatha's decision to surrender reflects the deep crisis of confidence that the Maoist ranks are facing in recent times.'
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.
This is the third big success in the past fortnight for security forces pushing relentlessly against the Maoists with the aim of ending the menace by March 2026.
The incident took place on Wednesday night in Tarrem area when a joint team of security personnel was returning after an anti-Maoist operation in forests on the tri-junction of Bijapur-Sukma-Dantewada districts, a police official said in Bijapur.
Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju, the powerful general secretary of Communist Party of India-Maoist killed in an encounter along with 26 others on Wednesday, had masterminded several major attacks on security forces in Chhattisgarh and his death is a big blow to the armed movement, said officials.
'The nuns were subjected to abusive language and all types of mental torture.'
BJP state chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar stated that the arrest of two nuns in Chhattisgarh was due to a 'misunderstanding' and that they will be released on bail soon. He met with Archbishop of Trichur Andrews Thazhath to brief him that the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister have assured the nuns would be released on bail.
If the threat from the 'Maovadis' (Maoists) is fading, the danger now lies with the 'MoUvadis' -- those who might exploit the resource-rich Abujhmad region through corporate or State-backed projects.
'They have to prove the credibility of their talk; whether they want to focus on the secular face of India, whether they want to focus on democracy and above all freedom of an individual to practice his or her religion.'
The two priority regions for the Chhattisgarh government to promote its homestay policy are Surguja and Bastar.
'They should be given a strong message that they are not the ones who decide the rule of the land, and they are not the ones who decide what justice is.'
Four Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region. A head constable of the District Reserve Guard (DRG) was also killed in the face-off.
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.
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.
As many as 14 Maoists were killed in an encounter with security personnel in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region on Friday, a senior police official said. However, ANI has put the toll at 30.
Three Maoists were killed in an encounter with security personnel in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district on Sunday. The gunfight broke out in the morning at a forest in the Indravati National Park area when a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation. The bodies of the three Naxalites were recovered along with firearms and explosives.
Here is the timeline of major Naxal attacks in Chhattisgarh.
Altogether seven firearms have been recovered from the encounter site, he 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.
A cache of weapons, including an AK-47 rifle, one SLR (self-loading rifle), one INSAS rifle, one LMG rifle and one .303 rifle were also recovered from the encounter spot.
In the first phase covering 20 of the total 90 assembly seats, 223 candidates, including 25 women, are in the fray and as per electoral rolls, 40,78,681 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise.
Four Central Reserve Police Force personnel, including a sub inspector, were killed on Saturday in an ambush laid by the Maoists in Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh. "When a CRPF party was on a combing operation, the Maoists triggered land mines blasts and opened indiscriminate firing in Brahmabeda jungle of Narayanpur district, about 275 km from the state capital," CRPF sources told PTI. A sub inspector and three constables were killed on the spot, they said.
Eight District Reserve Guards (DRG) jawans and a civilian driver were killed in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district when Naxals detonated an improvised explosive device targeting their vehicle. The incident occurred near Ambeli village while the security personnel were returning from an anti-Naxalite operation. This is the biggest Naxal attack on security forces in the region in the past two years.
With this, the number of Maoists killed in the gun battle with the security personnel on Friday has risen to 31, they said, adding that a search operation is still underway in the area.
Three security personnel suffered injuries in the fierce gun-battle and a large quantity of weapons was also recovered from the spot, the state police said.
As many as 22 teams of C-60 commandos and two squads of the Central Reserve Police Force under the supervision of senior officials launched an anti-Naxal operation from two different points in the forest area, said the release.
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.
Nine Naxalites, including three women, were killed in an encounter with security personnel in a forest along the border of Narayanpur and Kanker districts in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, state's Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma said.
Naxals on Tuesday abducted six persons, including five personnel of the Chhattisgarh Armed Force, from Narayanpur district of the state, said the police. An armed group of Naxals on Tuesday stopped a bus and abducted five jawans of the state armed force and one local person, said Rajesh Mishra, inspector general of police, Chhattisgarh. The incident took place near Kungada village.The five jawans were deployed at Dhanoura police camp in the district.
Seventeen security persons were injured in a powerful landmine blast between Remavand and Gulumpodo villages in Narayanpur district, the police said on Friday.
The Centre has reimposed the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in Manipur's six police station areas, including the violence-hit Jiribam.
'Many of them are mutilated beyond recognition. Every day an encounter takes place.' 'Bastar has been burnt to ash.'
"The Maoists blew up a cement-laden truck near Kapsi, about 250 km from the state capital, by triggering a landmine, killing three CSEB employees, including the truck's driver," a police source in Narayanpur told PTI.
Six Central Reserve Police Force personnel, including an inspector, were killed in a landmine blast triggered by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district on Friday. The incident occurred on a state highway when the CRPF team was proceeding on an anti-Naxalite operation from Konda to Narayanpur at around 11 am, CRPF spokesman Ajay Chaturvedi said.
Setting up new camps of security forces in these villages in the last seven months has been paving the way for development of the respective areas, they said.
The ultras released the engineer Ashok Pawar and worker Anand Yadav unharmed on Tuesday evening but Sonali is still inside the forest. She is in touch with local journalists and police officials.
With this incident, 154 Naxalites have been gunned down by the security forces in different encounters in Chhattisgarh so far this year, the police said.
A special squad of the anti-Naxal force recently undertook an operation in the jungles of Narayanpur district during which a UAV was not only able to pick up "real-time imagery" of movement of Naxal cadres but also relayed the conversation among them.
The gunfight lasted for around one-and-a-half hour, following which the ultras disappeared into the dense forest.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram suggested to the Chhattisgarh government that "relocation and reconfiguration" of para-military forces in the state may be required as some of them were not operationally viable.
