Maoist attacks have led to 217 disruptions in the movement of trains as a result of which the Railways have suffered a loss of Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion), Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee informed the Rajya Sabha on Friday.
While the Chhattisgarh police charged the well-known academic with a tribal man's murder, those who know her say it is vendetta at play.
'Our only child. A Communist.' 'There was an encounter by the police inside this room, five years ago. He was shot in one arm, but managed to escape.' 'Missing since then. May Jesus keep him alive.' A revealing excerpt from Asim Mukhopadhyay's Half Man: A Novel On The Naxal Movement.
Maheshwari, 59, the chief of the country's largest paramilitary force with a strength of about 3.25 lakh personnel, his predecessor and senior security advisor in the Union Home Ministry K Vijay Kumar, 67, and about two dozen officials in this chain have gone into self-quarantine after the doctor was found infected on April 2.
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.
Recalling the Galwan incident, he said the bravery, valour and restraint shown by the Indian Army are incomparable and unparalleled.
Communism and its unruly offshoots Naxalism and Maoism will continue to lose public support in India but a solution to the Naxal problem is still a few years away, writes Pramod Kumar Buravalli.
"Opposition is not allowing me to speak in Lok Sabha, so, I have decided to speak in 'jan sabha'," says Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In a letter to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, copies of which were released to the media, he said: "History has proved that annihilation of Naxalite leaders cannot supress the movement."
Kobad Ghandy, the politburo member of the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist, will utilise his time in Tihar Jail to write a book on wife Anuradha, who was his comrade- in-arms for two decades in the naxalite movement. Sources said the 59-year-old Ghandy has requested the authorities for paper to write the book.
'Eeit ka jawab patthar se denge.' 'We will do whatever it takes to ensure that such a loss does not happen again.'
In his first visit to BSF HQ after taking over as home minister, Shah was given a presentation on BSF deployment along Pak, Bangladesh borders.
Security forces engaged in anti-Naxal operations in various states, including Chhattisgarh, have decided to get different variants of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ranging from small drones to long-range surveillance ones. Forces deployed in Maoist hotbeds of the country have recently begun to pick up ground conversation, movement and pictures with the help of these devices. Authorities say they are handy in cases where quick information is needed.
Indian Mujahideen terror suspect Manzar Imam may have been the man the police was looking for in the Students Islamic Movement of India training camp case in Vagamon, Kerala. However, his interrogation has revealed that the IM may have plans to set up a base camp in Jharkhand, and this has sent officials into a frenzy. Vicky Nanjappa reports
Maoists shot dead two persons in Odisha's Malkangiri district suspecting them to be police informers even as a bandh was being observed by the ultras on Wednesday demanding withdrawal of security forces and halt to anti-naxal operations.
Raising pitch to suspend operation Green Hunt, Naxal sympathiser and Telegu poet Varavara Rao on Sunday dubbed Maoist leader Kishenji's encounter as a "political murder".
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), which guards the Line of Actual Control with China, has posted its first officer to head the newly-created Guwahati-based eastern command that oversees deployment of border battalions in that region.
AFSPA can be safely lifted from almost 90 per cent of Nagaland, argues Shekhar Gupta.
Banned outfit Communist Party of India-Maoist Tuesday claimed responsibility for the massacre of Congress leaders in Bastar region and demanded immediate suspension of all operations against it across the country.
Ahead of Home Minister Rajnath Singh's visit to Chhaittisgarh on Saturday, security forces have recovered two powerful tiffin bombs from Naxal-hit Sukma district's Dornapal region.
The fast, to be held at the Jantar Mantar, would see a large number of students and politicians, Dr Sangam Prithviraj, chief of the Students Joint Action Committee for Telangana confirmed.
Seven CRPF men were killed on Wednesday and their weapons looted after Naxals carried out a deadly landmine blast on their vehicle in the jungles of the worst Naxal-affected Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.
In a blow to the Naxals, top Maoist leader Kanchan has been arrested along with two others from the outskirts of Kolkata. Kanchan, one of the top Maoist leaders after Kishenji, had planned and implemented the Lalgarh movement in November 2008. The Maoist Central committee member, who was wanted in several cases of sedition, was arrested by the Special Task force of the police on Friday. "Yes, we have arrested Kanchan from Kolkata," said a police official.
Naxal leader and Kanu Sanyal's friend Ashim Chatterjee speaks about Kanu Sanyal's life and death.
"The entire edifice of security of the PM, in a federal structure like ours, stands on the strong bond of mutual trust and confidence between state police and the SPG. State police are fully responsible for ensuring a secure route for the PM's travel," former NSG Director General Sudeep Lakhtakia said.
Naxals, security forces big buyers; durables fail to click as families flee.
The Telangana Joint Action Committee on Wednesday demanded that the Centre initiate steps for formation of a separate state within a 'clear time frame' and resolved to continue its 'peaceful' agitation till the decision is officially announced.The committee, which met in New Delhi a day after an all party meeting called by Home Minister P Chidambaram ended in a stalemate, also expressed dismay over attempts to bring the element of Naxalism in the separate state movement.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday said that he has asked the army to provide Lt Col Prasad Purohit with all the documents he has sought to prove his innocence in the Malegaon blasts case.
Nearly 600 Central Reserve Police Force personnel arrived in the district on Thursday as reinforcements for the existing security personnel.
Empowerment of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) with extra territorial jurisdiction and declaration of Maulana Masood Azhar, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Dawood Ibrahim as terrorists after legislative amendment were counted among its achievements by the MHA, headed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Suspected Communist Party of India-Maoist guerrillas blew up railway tracks and a portion of government complex housing the office of the block development officer n Bihar's Naxal-hit Jamui district in the wee hours of Friday to protest the recent arrest of its self-styled area commander.
BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi dubbed the incident as 'unfortunate' and said 'the CM should have shown sensitivity in this regard'.
Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore and Uttam Ghosh/Rediff.com travelled 650 km in Chhattisgarh's Sukma and Bijapur districts to report on the situation that exists 11 days after the Burkapal ambush, where 25 CRPF troops were killed by the Maoists.
'If, in the first 48 to 72 hours, they are just on a wild goose chase, then Gauri Lankesh's murder will not get solved.'
"You cannot give arms to somebody and allow him to kill," the Supreme Court on Monday said, while taking a serious note of a petition alleging that the Chattisgarh government was allegedly arming civilians involved in Salwa Judum movement to fight Naxals.
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.
