At least five to six Naxalites are suspected to have been killed or injured in an exchange of fire that took place at Pomke Tadgaon in Bhamragarah taluka in Gadchiroli district on Wednesday morning, the police said.
Besides weakening the Maoists' lethal capacities and reducing violence, it is essential to ensure that governance is improved, so that those prone to sympathising with, or supporting, the Maoists would, in the long run, realise the needlessness and futility of doing so, says P V Ramana and Raj Bala Rana.
Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury rubbished Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's charge that Maoists and Marxists were two sides of the same coin and said she had no knowledge of communist movements in the country.
Could the massacre of the 75 jawans at Dantewada been avoided? Was the state prepared for a strategic counter-offensive such as this by the Naxalites?
Three Chhattisgarh Armed Force jawans and a Naxalite were killed in an encounter between the ultras and security personnel in Maoist-hit Narayanpur district on Tuesday.
In the first operation of its kind in a long time, the Chhattisgarh state police, the Special Task Force and the Central Reserve Police Force launched a combined offensive against Naxalites in the forests spanning two highly Naxal-infested districts to register their first major success in many months.
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 poet and professor's 'life breath is now in the hands of those sworn to uphold his Constitutional right to life.' 'Will they be true to their oath?', asks Jyoti Punwani.
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."
In Chhattisgarh, 40 lakh BPL smart card holders under the state's existing MSBY will be beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat.
The revelations were allegedly made by Arun Pereira, who the police accuse of being a Naxal ideologue, during a narco analysis test in Bangalore. Pereira says the information released after the test is fabricated.
The encounter took place under Kalasa police station when an ANF team began combing operations following a tip off late Tuesday night. During the operation a gang of four Naxalites, including a woman, started firing at the ANF team, A M Prasad, IGP (Western Range) told PTI from Kalasa over phone.
He said the force, which guards over 6,300 km of India's land border with Pakistan in the west and Bangladesh on the east, is faced by four main challenges on the security front.
Communist Party of India-Maoist guerrillas on Thursday shot dead six persons of rival naxalite outfit, Sashastra People's Morcha, in Bihar's Rohtas district, the police said. The victims, involved in armed resistance against the CPI-Maoist, were renegade members of the organisation. The police denied that those killed were police informers.
Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal said as per information available, Naxalites have sophisticated weapons and communication systems. The extremists primarily get a substantial bulk of their weapons by looting and illegal weapon manufacturing units, Jaiswal said.
First, Mamata's pampering of lawless elements masquerading as Trinamool Congress cadres. Second, her promotion of her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, as a possible successor and the adoption of Prashant Kishor as her political adviser. Neither has gone down well with either her followers or the public, observes Amulya Ganguli.
Police teams from Bihar and Jharkhand are likely to launch a joint operation against Naxalites in the border districts in the two states. The operation follows a Naxal attack at Chilkhadia village in Giridih district on Saturday morning which killed seventeen people, including the younger son of former Jharkhand chief minister Babulal Marandi. Official sources in the chief minister's office in Patna said that a joint operation against Naxalites will be launched soon.
Five men and two women Naxalites were among those killed in the gunbattle, DIG (Kolhan) Manoj Mishra, said.
Inspector General of Police (Operation) S K Bhardwaj told PTI that the encounter between the police and the naxalites lasted for over an hour in which over 200 rounds were fired from both the sides in which six naxalites and two policemen, including an assistant sub-inspector and a CRPF constable, were injured.
At least seven policemen were killed and six others were injured in a Maoist land-mine blast in Chattarpur area of Palamu in Jharkhand.
The report covers 20 countries, including war-torn Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen and also the situation in India, the Philippines and Nigeria.
In a major explosives haul in Bihar, the police on Saturday seized 6,000 kg of gelatine in Nawada district from a truck bound for Naxalite-hit districts in the state and arrested seven persons.
Police recovered about 400 kg of explosive material, suspected to have been hidden by the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist for making landmines and bombs, on Monday in Bihar's Gaya district.
HRW said that all parties in the Chhattisgarh conflict have used children in armed operations. The Naxalites, a Maoist armed group, admitted that it is their official practice to recruit children above age 16 in their forces, and they have used children as young as 12 in armed operations.
'One of the reasons for the BJP's recent resounding success in West Bengal is the resentment of the locals against the Trinamool Congress for failing to maintain law and order.' 'So, it isn't only the supposed pampering of the Muslims by the Trinamool Congress which has undermined its base among the Hindus,' notes Amulya Ganguli.
A large number of Naxalites on Monday ambushed a 14-member Central Reserve Police Force party and killed three of them in the hyper-sensitive Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh.
He took up the causes of tribals marginalised after their lands has been taken over for dams, mines and townships, often without their consent.
The last two months of the year have plenty of entertainment to offer.
The highlight of the occasion, according to officials, is an address to a special gathering in the morning by President Xi Jinping, who cast himself in the mould of Mao Zedong, the founder of the Communist Party of China as it is officially called.
Cricketer Gautam Gambhir too expressed his support and congratulated everyone on the dilution of Section 377.
The Telugu film industry has its superstars making release announcements in quick succession.
In May 2013, Naxalites ambushed a Congress party's convey on the Darba ghats killing 31 people. R Krishna Das revisits the spot a year later
The two were kidnapped when they were returning from Antagarh, about 30 km from Koyilibed on their own motorcycle after collecting their salary, police added.
The naxalites claimed that the Rani Bodli incident was an answer to the Salwa Judum (peace campaign) and anti-naxal operation in Bastar region.
Since the number of well-trained policemen were only 24 and put before about 700 armed Naxals, it was nothing but a 'kind of butchering'.
The police said the Bastar region, including the Bijapur district where the attack took place in the wee hours yesterday, was peaceful and no incident of Naxal violence was reported from any parts of the region on Saturday.
Police stations along the Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh border have also been put on high alert after yesterday's incident and combing operations have been increased, he said.
Another jawan was injured in the incident. Naxalites shot dead two Salwa Judum leaders Hapka Ayatu and Palli Pandu yesterday in Kader and Kandulnar villages of Bijapur district, police said.
