'The cities are not safe, Naxals will reach them very soon,' feels Mahendra Karma, the tribal leader who championed the controversial Salwa Judum against the Naxalites.
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.
The surrender of top Naxal leader Gudsa Usendi, mastermind of many lethal strikes including the attack on a Congress convoy in Chhattisgarh last year, is certainly a good news for the NIA, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
The Delhi battlefield may not be a cakewalk for the Rhodes Scholar.
Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence is having close liaison with some pro-Naxal overground organisations through banned Students Islamic Movement of India in West Bengal and helping them to instigate people against the government, a top police officer of the state said on Thursday.
'The cities are not safe, Naxals will reach them very soon,' feels Mahendra Karma, the tribal leader who championed the controversial Salwa Judum against the Naxalites.
Seven members of a polling team and five Central Reserve Police Force personnel were among 14 killed as Naxals struck twice on Saturday in a break of less than an hour, blowing up a bus and an ambulance in Bijapur and Bastar districts of Chhattisgarh.
A delegation of Congress leaders met EC officials and raised several issues, including the use of pictures and large cut-outs of the prime minister in government buildings and colleges and demanded that those be removed to maintain a level-playing field in the upcoming parliamentary election.
The new battalion, numbered 241, was named Bastariya because it included recruits from Bijapur, Dantewada, Narayanpur, and Sukma districts.
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.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles will be used for the first time to detect Naxal hideouts in dense forests and hilly terrains and monitor the movement of ultras to help ground forces carry out precision attacks.
'BJP and RSS may have differences over minor issues but their hearts long for one common aim -- that of A Hindu Rashtra.' 'And this time to prove this point the RSS has prepared to help BJP win this election with all its might.'
A maximum of 92,000 personnel of CAPFs are likely to be deployed in politically volatile West Bengal, where elections will be held in seven phases, followed by 63,500 personnel in militancy-hit Jammu and Kashmir, where polling will be held in five phases.
In a brazen daytime attack, Naxals on Tuesday ambushed a security team killing 15 personnel including 11 of the Central Reserve Police Force and also a civilian in a chilling reminder of the 2010 massacre of 76 securitymen in the same area in the worst-hit Sukma district of Chhattisgarh.
With the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) planning to create disturbances to mark its decade of formation this September, police is bracing up to counter any such move and make people aware about the "futility" of the rebel movements.
Terming Left-wing extremism as the "most violent movement" in India, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday said that the burden of governance in the Naxal-hit districts must rest with the states.
Nine policemen, including the additional superintendent of Chhattisgarh's Gariabandh district, were killed in a landmine blast triggered by Naxals in a jungle close to the border with Orissa.
The roots of the problem lies in the alienation of the tribals. Extreme sensitivity is required to tackle the issues involved. Rough and ready methods of using force may prove counterproductive in the long run, says Colonel (retd) Anil Athale.
The government on Friday ruled out holding any talks with Naxalites but said a balanced approach will be adopted in close coordination with states to tackle the violence perpetrated by Maoists.
Amid proposals for using helicopters for movement of paramilitary forces during anti-Naxal operations, the Indian Air Force has suggested to the government that its 15 choppers deputed for UN peacekeeping forces may be called back as it has constraints of resources.
The country's specialised snoop department, the National Technical Research Organisation has set up its first base in a naxal hotbed in Chhattisgarh to monitor the movement of armed Maoist cadres and fly Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to help security forces to track them.
With heavy security deployment in hyper-sensitive areas of Bastar region ahead of polls, Naxalites are apparently trying to change their course of action and mobilising cadres to town areas to attack "soft targets" outside their core hold, intelligence sources said.
A police jawan was killed in a gun-battle with Maoists in insurgency-hit Chhattisgarh's Kondagaon district today, the police said. "The encounter took place near a river in restive Hekli forests under Mardapal police station limits when security personnel were returning after a search operation in the evening," Kondagaon Additional Superintendent of Police Surjit Atri told PTI.
A day after polling in Chattisgarh's Bastar Lok Sabha seat, two security personnel were on Friday injured in a pressure bomb blast carried out by Naxals in the insurgency-hit Bijapur district of the region, police said.
'I asked him why were he and other writers being targeted.' 'I saw his point of view, that he and others being writers, their work was popular and well-appreciated by people, especially the youth.' 'This made the State fear them.'
The paramilitary had cut down the use of these vehicles for anti-Naxal operations drastically to a 'bare minimum' after they were targeted in improvised explosive device blasts in the Left Wing Extremism-hit areas.
The prime minister will be visiting an education city, aimed at providing education to under-privileged children living in the area
Campaigning ended on Wednesday evening for 102 Lok Sabha seats across 21 states and Union territories which will go to polls in the first phase on April 19 with top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) making a last-gasp effort to woo voters.
Naxals allegedly set on fire a conveyor belt of National Mineral Development Corporation in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district in the wee hours on Wednesday causing production disturbance to the tune of 40,000 tonnes.
Veteran actor Vinod Khanna on his forthcoming release Red Alert.
Joginder Tuteja looks at the new shows on our plate.
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 local intelligence wing had suggested not to carry out large anti-Naxal operations in south Bastar forests, where the ultras recently killed 14 Central Reserve Police Force personnel, citing geographical complications and strong Maoist 'Jantana Sarkar' network, a senior police official said.
The Union home ministry on Tuesday ruled out involvement of the army in anti-Naxal operations but said more paramilitary forces will be deployed for intensified operations in Maoists-hit areas to flush out the extremists.
Intelligence inputs suggest that there is a meticulously-woven Maoist network in the jungle zones of Kerala
Seven policemen were on Saturday killed and 10 persons were injured in a gunbattle with Naxals in the Maoist hotbed of Sukma district in Chhattisgarh.
The investigation of three Tamil extremists, arrested on Monday in neighbouring Theni district, has revaled the presence of a Maoist group in Tamil Nadu with links to Naxals in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
"The face-off between a small action team of ultras and a joint team of security forces took place about 2 kms deep inside the forests from the spot where the explosion took place at around 8 am," Sukma Superintendent of Police Indira Kalyan Elesela told PTI over phone.
At least three Border Security Force personnel were killed and two injured when Naxals blew up their vehicle in an improvised explosive device blast in Odisha's Koraput district on Tuesday.
