A commander of the banned CPI (Maoist) was killed in a gunfight with security forces in Jharkhand's Palamu district. Another red rebel, carrying a bounty of Rs 15 lakh, was injured in the encounter. Several weapons, including a self-loading rifle, were recovered during the search operation following the gunfight.
Ten Maoists were killed in an encounter with a splinter group of the Communist Party of India-Maoist near a village of Chatra district, police said on Thursday.
The Maoists shot at and injured two persons, blew up a culvert and burnt down four vehicles at Chatra as they ended their two-day Jharkhand shutdown.
The victim, who suffered severe burn injuries in the incident, was declared "brought dead" by doctors when she was rushed to a nearby hospital on Friday, police said.
Maoists on Thursday blew up a police jeep, killing a policeman and injuring four others at Jaranga village in Jharkhand's Khunti district. Inspector-General of Police V Deshmukh said the jeep overturned under the impact of the blast. He ruled out the possibility of a landmine causing the blast. All the injured victims have been admitted to a hospital in Ranchi. The Maoists also blew up a middle school, Anant Madhya Vidyala, at Pratappur in Chatra district.
Maoists attacked a police patrol party and opened indiscriminate fire, leaving three policemen, including an officer, dead in Jharkhand's Chatra district.
The MeT department has warned of rain or thunderstorm at isolated places in the state in the next two days.
A cold wave has gripped many parts of north and east India, with Srinagar recording a minimum temperature of minus 5.3 degrees Celsius. Other areas experiencing below-freezing temperatures include Gulmarg, Pahalgam, Konibal, Qazigund, Kupwara, and Kokernag in Kashmir. Himachal Pradesh has issued an orange warning for severe cold wave conditions in several districts. Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 5.9 degrees Celsius, while Faridkot in Punjab was the coldest in the region at 0 degrees Celsius. Extreme cold conditions also continued in parts of Rajasthan and Jharkhand. The Met office has forecast mainly dry weather until December 26, with the possibility of light snowfall in the higher reaches of Kashmir on the intervening night of December 21-22.
Nearly 13.04 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 9 am on Wednesday in 43 assembly constituencies in Jharkhand where voting is underway in the first phase, officials said.
Though earlier it was suspected to be a landmine blast, later prima facie it seemed the explosives were hidden in a box which exploded during a search.
A senior journalist of Hindi daily Hindustan was shot dead in Bihar's Siwan district on Friday nigth by unidentified gunmen, police said.
Mukesh Ganju, stated to be the mastermind of the murder of the journalist, is absconding.
Daily life was partially affected in West Bengal on Wednesday due to a 12-hour shutdown called by the Bharatiya Janata Party, protesting the police action against demonstrators during a march to the state secretariat.
The incident took place at Chatra Upgraded School in Poraiyahat area, around 300 km from Ranchi, during school hours around 11 am, a senior police officer said.
Sixteen people in five Jharkhand districts have been killed by a tusker in the past 12 days, with four in a single block of Ranchi district on Tuesday, forest officials said.
Besides Defence Minister Singh (Lucknow), Minister of Women and Child Development Irani (Amethi), those in the fray are Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishor (Mohanlalganj) and Minister of State of Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti (Fatehpur).
Kharif crops were sown in only 4.15 lakh hectares against the target of 28.27 lakh hectares till July 21 or only in 14.71 per cent of the arable land.
Of the deceased, five were from West Bengal, two each from Jharkhand and neighbouring Assam and one from Mizoram's Lunglei district, the official said.
This classification of districts is to be followed by states and union terrotories till a week post May 3, when the second phase of lockdown will end, for containment operations.
Recorded versions or bhajans being recited by those present at the temples were played out at around 5 am to counter the morning azaan being recited on the loudspeakers.
Central Reserve Police Force Deputy Commandant and five-time gallantry medal winner P R Mishra has become the only person from paramilitary forces to have been decorated with a Shaurya Chakra this Independence day for displaying exemplary courage in anti-Naxal operations.
She has been called again on Wednesday for a fresh round of grilling.
Two cases have been registered in the paper leak incident so far. The Crime Branch of Delhi Police has questioned nearly 60 people, including students and tutors, in this connection.
The tragedy occurred at Bukru village under Shregada within Balumath police station limits when the girls had gone to the pond for immersion after Karma Puja, a major festival in Jharkhand.
The fate of 189 candidates, including 15 women nominees, will be decided in the first phase of the polling in Chatra, Gumla, Bishunpur, Lohardaga, Manika, Latehar, Panki, Daltonganj, Bishrampur, Chhatarpur, Hussainabad, Garhwa and Bhawanathpur.
The 39-year-old was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate from Ranchi after the agency conducted multi-city raids against him, Singhal, her businessman husband Abhishek Jha and others, on May 6.
Sources claimed that Singhal was "evasive" in her replies and hence was arrested.
'Justice B V Nagarathna has excellent human qualities and is a stickler for the law.'
Jharkhand mining secretary Pooja Singhal, earlier arrested and remanded to the custody of the ED in a suspected money laundering case, was suspended by the Jharkhand government on Thursday, an official said.
Maoists blew up a panchayat office in Jharkhand's Lohardaga district, police said.
After successfully blocking construction at the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation's 2000 MW Lower Subansiri Hydro-electric Project at Gerukamukh in Dhemaji district of Assam, the anti-dam brigade comprising several organisations were on Thursday called for negotiation by the Assam government in Guwahati.
After the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was cleared by Parliament, violent protests broke out in Guwahati.
The feud in Uttar Pradesh's first family had ended on Saturday after Akhilesh restored all but one portfolio of Shivpal and promised to support him as SP's state unit president, a post from which he was himself removed three days back triggering the power tussle with his uncle.
Maoists exploded a series of landmines in the forests of Latehar district and exchanged gunfire with security personnel early on Thursday before the polling began for the Chatra Lok Sabha seat in Jharkhand.
The degeneration of the health conditions of the people, especially tribal women and children, and water contamination are some of the most serious impacts of coal mining in Jharkhand, notes Nitish Priyadarshi.
A mass protest mobilised by anti-dam protestors from Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity (KMSS), All Assam Students Union (AASU) and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) on Thursday stopped a turbine component that was being transported to the 2000 MW Lower Subansiri Hydro-power Project in Dhemaji district of Assam.
A Reliance Power General Manager Manoj Kumar Ojha was killed on Wednesday when two armed men suspected to be members of a splinter Maoist group fired at his vehicle in a village in this district, the police said.
Protesting farmers, who have been holding their fort at the Singhu border for over 20 days, are keeping monotony and boredom at bay by adding new books to their reading list -- day after day.
Violent agitations continued to rock parts of West Bengal for second consecutive day on Saturday as people protesting against the amended Citizenship Act set several buses on fire and torched portions of a railway station complex, officials said.
Though a pyrrhic victory for the BJP, the party he chose to align himself against his former mentor Banerjee, it nevertheless is being seen as a morale booster for the saffron party as his former party, the Trinamool Congress under Banerjee's leadership, has garnered an overwhelming 213 seats out of 292 seats which went to polls.
