Acting on a tip-off, commandos of anti-Naxal unit C-60 combed Sindesur forest area in Dhanora taluka and spotted a group of ultras who fired at them, triggering a gun battle at around 11 am
Suspected Naxals fired at an Indian Air Force helicopter and injured a security man in the Maoist hotbed of Dantewada in Chhattisgarh. According to preliminary reports, the helicopter was on a mission to airlift a few Central Reserve Police Force troopers when it was fired upon.
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.
Acting Director General of the CRPF, Sudeep Lakhtakia said the ambush has "naturally called for the revision of standard operating procedures" in these areas.
A Central Reserve Police Force official was injured on Monday when Naxals attacked a camp of paramilitary forces in insurgency-hit Sukma district in southern Chhattisgarh.
President Droupadi Murmu has approved 76 gallantry awards, including four Kirti Chakras posthumously and 11 Shaurya Chakras to personnel of the security forces, on the eve of the 77th Independence Day, officials said.
The killing of a policeman taken hostage by Maoists will erode the credibility of the Naxals, but the handling of the situation by the Nitish Kumar government is also questionable, feels social activist Medha Patkar.
The Naxals attempted to blow up a vehicle transporting a police team in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, officials said. The extremists triggered a landmine blast when the van was passing by near Parleda village, Bijapur Superintendent of Police Avinash Mohanty told PTI by phone.
The security forces nabbed two ultras after intensifying combing operation on the sixth day today, flushing out the Naxals hiding in various jungles in the borders of Kandhmal and Ganjam, after the mayhem. Sources said that Mahipur outpost constable Chintamani Sahu, who was admitted along with seven others at the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, succumbed to the injuries on Wednesday night.
A group of Naxalites killed two persons and damaged an abandoned police camp in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, police said on Saturday.
After the government came under opposition attack on the handling of Naxal violence, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said the state governments have the primary responsibility to fight the Maoist menace and the Centre was ready to assist them.
'No one is saying that the police can become the solution, the police have to become the first respondent to create a situation where other people can enter,' says Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwa Ranjan.
Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram said on Friday that the progress of the on-going operation against the Maoists in the Naxal-hit states was "satisfactory"."The joint operation against the Naxalites is few weeks old and the progress has been satisfactory," Chidambaram told media-persons after a high-level meeting convened in Raipur to review the operation.
The government has alerted Naxal-affected states against possible Maoist attacks on railway networks, in the wake of Left-wing extremists targeting a Rajdhani Express train in Bihar, by blasting the rail tracks. The home ministry has issued the alert to West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh, apprehending attacks by Naxals on trains and railway infrastructure, as any sabotage on the network can result in large-scale damages, official sources said.
Naxals are trying to spread their tentacles across southern states, according to Andhra Pradesh police chief R R Girish Kumar."Naxals are trying to spread all over (the country). We have evidence that these people (Maoists) are trying to set up their cells even in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. We would like to sensitise the police of neighbouring states on the lurking danger so that they can have a proper action plan in place," DGP R R Girish Kumar said.
He said Congress would push Madhya Pradesh back into the BIMARU (laggard) category if given an opportunity again.
Prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh has reportedly convened a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security at 5 pm on Tuesday to discuss the growing threat of the Naxal terror in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand.
As his father takes on the Naxals in Chhattisgarh, Sopan Khosla has scored his own victory.
Available information indicates that the CRPF's operation in Chattisgarh last week in which 19 alleged Maoists were killed, had taken place on half-baked information, reports Vicky Nanjappa
Six Central Reserve Police Force personnel and 13 Maoists were killed in two separate encounters in Bijapur district, about 565 km from Chhattisgarh, a senior police official said on Monday.
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.
Twelve constituencies of Bastar division were among 20 assembly segments in Chhattisgarh that went to the polls in the first phase on November 7. A high voter turnout of 78 per cent was recorded in these 20 seats.
As many as 71 elected representatives in Gadhiroli, an East Maharashtra district have resigned from their posts till now, apparently due to Naxal threat. Talking to the media, Chief Executive Officer of the Gadchiroli Zilla Parishad.
"The voting percentage is likely to go upwards when reports from all polling stations are obtained as polling is scheduled till 6 pm in many constituencies. Final figures will be known on Saturday after the scrutiny of form 17A," the EC said.
Defence Minister A K Antony said on Sunday that the government viewed the violence unleashed by Maoists in some parts of the country very seriously.
'The Congress is trying to reinvent itself -- the caste census demand, OBC emphasis, the anti-corporate thrust, especially on Adani etc -- all this is not standard Congress strategy.'
On an average, Naxals kill at least three persons in as many as six attacks every day. In the first six months of 2010, Maoists carried out a total of 1,103 attacks, in which 534 people were killed. This was disclosed by Home Minister P Chidambaram while speaking at a meeting of chief ministers to discuss the situation arising out of Maoist violence in the country. According to the data presented by the home minister, the extremists have killed 325 civilians.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Wednesday said the brutal Maoist attack in Dantewada, in which 76 security personnel were killed, is a reminder that no state government can single-handedly tackle Naxal violence and called for a coordinated action by the Centre and the states.
A first-of-its kind 'battle field hospital' is being set up deep inside the Naxal hotbed of Dantewada in Chhattisgarh which will provide immediate first aid to injured Central Reserve Police Force and other security forces officials undertaking anti-Maoist operations.
Three Naxals were killed on Tuesday in a gun-battle with security forces in Chhattisgarh's worst insurgency-hit Sukma district.
After a sustained operation along the Jharkhand-West Bengal border, the anti-Naxal forces will soon launch an offensive along the crucial borderline of Orissa and Chhattisgarh which is considered a Maoist stronghold.
A police constable was on Thursday killed in a pressure bomb blast triggered by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district.
"Ghandy was preaching Naxalism, Marxism and Leninism. He was central committee member of Politbureau of CPI-ML, besides looking after Committee of Mass Organisation and international department of Central Publishing Bureau and being in charge of its South Western Regional Bureau," the Delhi Police told Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Friday that the government had drawn up an integrated plan to tackle the Naxal problem in consultation with the states and was initiating firm action against the Maoists.
Shah made the announcement while addressing the passing out parade of the first batch of the five newly constituted Assam Police Commando battalions in Guwahati.
It's a single phase polling in Mizoram while first phase of assembly elections is underway in Chhattisgarh.
Former Border Security Force director general E N Rammohan, appointed to inquire into the circumstances leading to the massacre of 76 security personnel by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, has begun his probe.
All India Congress Committee General Secretary Digvijay Singh, who appears to have stirred a hornet's nest with his remarks on Naxalism, will have to do some explaining to the party leadership on his newspaper article critical of Home Minister P Chidambaram when he returns from the US next week.
In a strongly-worded article in a leading newspaper, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Wednesday questioned Home Minister P Chidambaram's strategy of treating the Naxal issue as a law and order problem, and called for a rethink of the counter-Maoist strategy. At the same time, Singh, a former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, said, "The buck stops with the chief minister for law and order, and not with the home minister."
