A US Air Force spokesman also confirmed in Kolkata that 12 F-16 aircraft had already reached the Kalaikunda airbase.
Five persons, including a woman, were killed and over 20 injured when villagers suspecting a house was being used by armed Communist Party of India-Marxist cadre gheraoed it and were fired upon from inside in Lalgarh area of West Midnapore district on Friday.
Disgruntled Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Kabir Suman, who had alleged that he was unable to work for the people of his constituency because of opposition from a section of party leaders, on Friday said differences with party members had been resolved.He also demanded that he be allowed to speak in Parliament against the anti-Maoist operations by the police and central forces in West Midnapore district.
Fierce gun battles took place on Monday between the Maoists and combined security forces at three places in West Midnapore district, a day after four Eastern Frontier Rifles jawans were gunned down by the extremists at Gidhni bazar in Kolkata.
Four Eastern Frontier Rifles jawans were killed in a surprise assault by Maoists in Gidhni in West Midnapore on Sunday, hours after Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee wrapped up a two-day visit to the violence-hit district. Claiming responsibility for the killings, top Maoist leader Koteshar Rao alias Kishanji dared the central government to deploy as many forces as they wanted in the embattled area.
The EC said polling percentage in the Anantnag-Rajouri seat in Jammu and Kashmir is the highest in 40 years.
The First Information Report that was filed against the hijackers of the Rajdhani Express doesn't mention the role played by the Maoists or the armed wing of the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities, both of which claimed responsibility for the incident.The FIR filed by railway authorities in West Midnapore's Rajdhani hostage case is being seen as a move to shield the Maoists. The FIR was lodged with the Jhargram Government Railway Police.
Passengers of the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express had a harrowing time on Tuesday, when armed tribal agitators halted their train, smashed glass panes of the AC compartments and forcibly opened the doors, before taking away the drivers, at Banstala in Maoist-infested West Midnapore district. "The train had just crossed Jhargram Station and was passing through a densely forested patch when a large mob attacked it with stones," recalled a passenger.
With firing having erupted in West Midnapore district on Tuesday, Maoist leader Kishenji demanded security forces stop it as a condition for the release of two abducted drivers of Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani.
Maoist leader Kishenji on Wednesday said Atindranath Dutta, the police officer whom they abducted in West Midnapore district, will be produced before the media soon but will be released only after the women arrested by the security forces are freed.
An approximate voter turnout of 59.06 per cent was recorded in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections on Saturday in 58 constituencies across six states and two Union territories with the polling percentage in the Jangal Mahal region of West Bengal touching 78.19.
Top Maoist leader Kishenji claimed on Tuesday that his oufit was not involved in the May 28 Jnaneswari Express disaster in West Midnapore district that claimed 148 lives.
"We are going to villages surrounding Ramgarh and consolidating our position and reassuring the people that they were now free from the fear of Maoists," Burdwan Assistant Superintendent of Police Humayun Kabir told PTI.
The Union Home Ministry has already sent a total of 16 companies (1,600 personnel), including an all-women company, to the state to tackle the Lalgarh situation.
The derailment of the Lokmanya Tilak Gyaneshwari Super Deluxe Express in West Midnapore district, which left at least 75 passengers dead on Friday, threw up a number of contradictions on what caused the mishap. Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, who flew to the accident spot in a helicopter, said the derailment was caused by a bomb blast and indicated that Maoists were behind it.
Suspected Maoists triggered a landmine blast on a railway track near Jhargram in West Midnapore district on Wednesday, injuring two drivers of a goods train and leaving the engine of the freight train damaged.
Four Communist Party of India-Marxist supporters and a party worker were shot dead by Maoists on Friday after they suspected them to be police informers and their bodies dumped on the highway at West Midnapore and Purulia districts, the police said.
Ahead of Home Minister P Chidambaram's visit to Naxal-hit Lalgarh area of West Midnapore district on Sunday, Maoists exploded a landmine there on Saturday, injuring a Central Reserve Police Force personnel. The landmine was planted alongside a road in Bamal area and when the CRPF jawan stepped on it, the explosive went off, said the police. Security has been beefed up in Lalgarh, where Chidambaram is expected to visit on Sunday.
School teacher and Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Ranjit Duley, kidnapped by the Maoists at gunpoint from a school in Bankura district on March 4, was released unharmed in West Midnapore district early on Tuesday morning, the police said.
The Trinamool Congress won 211 seats.
The beheaded body of a school teacher, kidnapped by Maoists, was found near Goaltore in the restive West Midnapore district on Tuesday, police sources said.The teacher, Satya Kinkar Hansda, of Sirisboni village, had been threatened earlier by the ultras for being the member of a rival organisation. He was picked up by an armed cadre on Monday night and his decapitated body was found in a nearby jungle today morning, sources said.
Shreya Sen, a survivor of the horrific Gyneshwari train mishap, has not let that traumatic incident rob her of her passion for life or her charming smile, discovers Sanchari Bhattacharya.
A close aide of top Maoist leader Kishenji and main accused in the Jharkhand MP Sunil Mahato murder case was arrested from a forest in Salboni in West Midnapore district on Friday.
Nearly 600 Central Reserve Police Force personnel arrived in the district on Thursday as reinforcements for the existing security personnel.
Top Maoist leader Koteshwar Rao, who was believed to have camped in Lalgarh and provided leadership to the tribal agitation in West Midnapore district, has possibly left the country for Bangladesh.
Six-year-old Rupsa Sheikh is in a state of shock and has stopped speaking after her mother Salma died in the train derailment in West Midnapore district.
The Jhargram train attack that killed at least 75 people on Friday is the latest of the over 65 Maoist attacks in the past one year that have targeted the railways. The Left-wing extremists have carried out four attacks on railway properties in May alone. On May 19, they triggered a landmine blast on railway tracks near Jhargram in West Midnapore district, injuring two drivers of a goods train and leaving the engine partially damaged.
The landmine is believed to have been left there by Naxals.
Alert policemen retaliated and exchange around 60 rounds with the ultras.
The Nationalist Trinamool Congress chief, however, escaped unhurt.
The aircraft had got airborne from Kalaikunda airbase in West Midnapore district for a routine training mission at 1030 hours.
CPI activists led by party member Amitava Nandi demonstrated outside the airport in Kolkata against the joint India-US exercise.
Ghosh suffered minor injuries when a group of women allegedly attacked her when she tried to take one BJP agent inside a polling booth.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday that at least 72 people have died due to Cyclone Amphan and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the affected districts and provide help to 'rebuild those areas from scratch'
India will get its first transgender college principal on June 9 when Manabi Bandopadhyay takes charge of Krishnagar Women's College in West Bengal's Nadia district.
Principal Secretary of the state health department Bibek Kumar, in his letter to the secretary of the Union ministry of health and family welfare on Friday, described the list as "an erroneous assessment" and said Bengal, keeping in view the parameters set by the Centre, has earmarked four "red" zones -- Kolkata, Howrah, North 24 Parganas and East Midnapore.
At least 155 people have lost their lives and over 80 lakh people affected in fresh floods due to excessive rains in worst-affected Gujarat, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Odisha.
Alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party was bringing in goons from outside to stop people from exercising their franchise in Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged women to 'confront the hoodlums with ladle, spatula' and other cooking utensils.
Adhikari joined the BJP amid Shah's two-day visit to West Bengal ahead of the assembly elections in 2021.
Ajit Roy, 42, a resident of Ullora village in Memari, jumped in front of a train at Rasulpur in Burdwan.
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