A state-of-the-art control room with giant TV screens that will help track the offensive of security forces in Naxal strongholds with satellite imaging and Global Positioning System has been activated at the Central Reserve Police Force headquarters in New Delhi.
The Indian Air Force has requested the government to ensure that states hit by left wing extremism spruce up their infrastructure to ensure safety and security of air force helicopters and men deployed in anti-Naxal operations.
Four Naxals were killed in an encounter on Thursday with the police in a remote forest area in Gadchiroli district bordering Chhattisgarh, a police officer said.
Uncertainty prevailed over beginning of a joint operation against Naxalites in Orissa with the state government today accusing the Centre of not sending adequate paramilitary forces for the purpose.
In a fresh strategy to combat the Naxal menace, the government on Wednesday asked Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal to create a unified command for anti-Maoist operations and to appoint a retired major general of the army as its member.
Top sources in the air wing said that while two 'Dhruvs' are gathering dust at the Raipur airbase for the last two months as their spare parts are unavailable, the third is with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, as it had clocked 500 flying hours after which it needs servicing.
In the past one-and-a-half years, Naxals have destroyed nearly 250 mobile towers across the country. The incidents have occurred in Bihar, Chattisgarh, West Bengal, Odisha Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. But there seems to be a method to the madness. Vicky Nanjappa reports.
Nine persons, including five policemen, were killed and as many were wounded as CPI-Maoist rebels carried out simultaneous attacks on a police station and an outpost in Rohtas district.
The government has sanctioned fresh funds totalling Rs 2,079 crore to the CRPF and nine Naxal-hit states to combat Maoist challenge with a bulk of the money earmarked for the central force.
A CRPF officer was on Saturday killed in an encounter with suspected Naxalites in Gariaband district of Chhattisgarh.
Anti-Naxal operations will be intensified in the aftermath of the Maoist attack on Congress leaders, the government said on Tuesday but ruled out holding peace talks with the extremists unless they abjure violence.
As the deadline set by two Maoist groups in the twin hostage crisis ends on Tuesday, the Odisha government seemed to have toughened its stance vis-a-vis their new demands.
Odisha's police force on Monday threatened to boycott anti-Naxal operations if hardcore Maoists are freed by the state government in a bid to end the twin hostage crisis which escalated with the abductors setting new demands before their deadline expires on Monday.
The Centre on Tuesday ruled out use of air power in the fight against Naxalites and admitted obviously some element of failure in the operations led to the killing of 75 security personnel in Chhattisgarh.
Hundreds of Central REeserve Police Force troops deployed for anti-naxal operations in Bastar region of Chattisgarh were in for a pleasant surprise when they found their chief K Vijay Kumar in their midst to launch a New Year's eve strike.
A Central Reserve Police Force jawan and a motor mechanic were arrested on Friday for allegedly working for Maoists and providing them information about anti-Naxal operations in Orissa's Sundargarh district. Jawan Satyaban Bhoi, 38, was working in the CRPF's intelligence wing and was posted in the 19th battalion of the paramilitary force in Bisra. Mechanic Tarun Das, 26, ran a motor vehicle repair garage at the same place.
Almost seven such "Malinois" breed dogs have been trained by the premier police dog training centre of the paramilitary Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) at their academy near Chandigarh for about 22 weeks.
At least 12 Maoists have been killed in the massive anti-Naxal operation launched jointly by security forces of Jharkhand and Orissa since Saturday in Saranda forest, a top police official said on Monday. Jharkhand Director General of Police Neyaz Ahmad said that ten to 12 Maoists have been killed since Saturday.Meanwhile, the Maoists blew up a hostel and panchayat bhawan at Anandpur and triggered three landmine blasts in the Tirilposhi jungle today morning.
Maoists triggered a blast on a stretch of land along the railway track between Midnapore and Godapia Sal stations in West Midnapore district of West Bengal in the wee hours on Monday as the 48-hr bandh called by them began.
Maoists blew up a school building at Manjiladih in Jharkhand's Giridih district on Monday night, the police said.
On a visit to Maoist-affected states of Chattisgarh and Jharkand, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Friday said there is no move to involve the army in the fight against Naxals who pose the "gravest challenge."
The government has moved the Supreme Court asking it to review and recall two crucial clauses of the July 5 order banning Special Police Officers in the anti-Naxal operations in states like Chhattisgarh.
The incident occurred a day after Naxals ambushed a team of security forces, killing four BSF personnel.
Naxalites blew up the mini-goods van in which the security personnel were travelling by using an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), police sources said.
At least 13 security personnel were killed on Friday when Naxals triggered a blast and then opened fire on a patrol party near Tongada village, bordering Andhra Pradesh, in the Maoist-affected district of Bijapur in Chhattisgarh. The patrol party, comprising 21 police personnel, was returning from Terla village when the rebels unleashed the attack.
The CRPF is also looking at the second option of inducting a new company (around 125 men) into the 62nd battalion to be deployed in the dense jungles of Chhattisgarh to undertake anti-Naxal operations.
The CRPF and local police on anti-Naxal operations perform a thankless job but a few basic counter-insurgency measures could have prevented the deadly Dantewada attack, writes B Raman.
Five police personnel were killed and 13 others injured as Naxals blew up the bus in which they were traveling in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district on Tuesday, senior police officials said.
The Centre on Wednesday announced ex-gratia payment of Rs 15 lakh for kin of each of the 75 Central Reserve Police Force men killed in the Naxal attack on Tuesday in Chattisgarh's Dantewada district.
The impact of the blast was so tremendous that it created a crater of about five to six feet width at the blast site and flung the police van carrying the STF personnel in the air.
The Maoists carried out two dozen blasts in the evening when the motorcycle-borne policemen during an anti-Naxal operation were passing through the Kudur area
The naxalites claimed that the Rani Bodli incident was an answer to the Salwa Judum (peace campaign) and anti-naxal operation in Bastar region.
The forces, especially those involved in counter insurgency and anti-Naxal operations besides those guarding the border heaved a sigh of relief after the Centre recently accepted their demand of restoring the old pension scheme with retrospective effect. Five years ago, the government had framed rules which did not entitle jawans recruited in central police forces after 2004, to pension benefits.
Jha, a fearless officer of the country's largest paramilitary force, led a lethal anti-Naxal operation on July 3 last year in Jamui district of Bihar.
The incident occurred around 7.45 pm on the "black top road" between Peddakodepal and Naimed villages under the Naimed police station area, when the victims were heading towards neighbouring Dantewada district in an SUV to visit a fair, said Deputy Inspector General (anti-naxal operation) Sundarraj P.
He accused Naxalites of using tribal villagers as a shield.
Security agencies are working to ascertain a claim made by Naxals that they abducted a CoBRA commando after the ambush in Chhattisgarh on Saturday that left at least 22 security personnel dead, official sources said
In a major anti-Naxal operation, seven Maoists were killed in Betkathi village in Maharashtra's Gondia district in the wee hours on Tuesday.
A sub-inspector of the Andhra Pradesh's counter-Maoist force was posthumously awarded the Ashok Chakra, the highest peacetime gallantry award of the country, as India celebrated its 65th Republic Day on Sunday.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday alleged that the operation against Naxals in Chhattisgarh, in which 22 security personnel were killed, was 'incompetently' executed and 'poorly designed'.
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