"Maoists should say 'We will abjure violence. We will suspend violence and actually suspend violence for 72 hours'. We will get the chief ministers on board. We will respond. We will fix a date, time and place for talks and let the Maoists come for the talks on anything they wish to talk," Chidambaram told the CNN-IBN television channel.
Appalled by the "savage" attack in Chhattisgarh, National Human Rights Commission on Wednesday said the Maoists have now made it impossible for authorities to take social welfare programmes to the most needy and asked government to take precautionary steps to ensure villagers do not suffer in any retaliatory operations.
The Indian Air Force on Thursday said it has deployed Garud Special Forces commandos and four choppers for anti-Naxal operations but withdrawn the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles operating in Maoist bastions in Chhattisgarh.
Fearing imminent arrest and likely reprisals from the CRPF -- 25 of whose jawans were gunned down by the Maoists inside a jungle just 200 to 300 metres away from their homes on the afternoon of April 24 -- young Adivasi men and women in Burkapal abandoned their homes and fled into the jungle.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday accused the Congress again of planning to redistribute people's property if it is voted to power, but stopped short of saying that the wealth would go to Muslims.
Curtains were wrung down on the seven-year-old case of Maoist attack on the former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu with the additional sessions court in Tirupati indicting four of the 30 accused and awarded them punishment on Friday.
The attacks by the Communist Party of India-Maoist, whether opportunistic or pre-planned, are part of their strategy of an 'armed liberation struggle' and in furtherance of their goal of 'seizure of political power through a protracted people's war', says Home Minister P Chidambaram.
Condemning the Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh, BJP today expressed its "shock" and concern over frequent targeting of political activist by Naxals and called for an aggressive, unified and non-partisan strategy to fight the menace.
Two Central Reserve Police Force jawans and as many Maoists were killed and nine other securitymen injured in an encounter between the two sides in Balthar forests in Bihar's Maoist-hit Gaya district, a police official said on Monday.
Independence Day was celebrated across states and Union territories on Thursday, as several chief ministers announced job schemes while some others vowed their support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a Viksit Bharat by 2047.
'India is my country and we will raise our voice against anybody who harms the interests of Adivasis, be it the state government or the Maoists.'
Kharge accused PM Modi of inciting people over the issues "that the Congress will never do".
Rahul Gandhi attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Chhattisgarh for its failure to act against Maoists responsible for killing many Congress leaders in May.
Committing itself to a greater role in the government's fight against Maoists, the Indian Air Force on Thursday said it had sought permission from the defence ministry to open fire at the Left extremists if its helicopters or aircrew came under attack.
The Left-wing extremists have killed about 2,670 people--about 1,680 civilians and nearly 990 security personnel--since 2005, equalling three deaths every two days.
The Congress on Thursday attacked the Communist Party of India-Marxist and termed as 'absurd' its statement that supporters of the Maoists were also in the cabinet of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"It was pitch dark... when I regained my senses, I somehow managed to scramble out of the coach through the emergency window," said Anil Gupta, who was onboard the Maharashtra-bound Gyaneshwari Express, which came under Maoist attack in the wee hours of Friday.
119 of the absconders are from CPI-Maoist outfit, while the rest are members the private militia of upper caste landlords Ranvir Sena, the sources said.
Apprehending a "credible threat" from Maoists during the two-day bandh call given by them, railways on Tuesday said it has formed a special task force to meet any eventuality following an alert issued by the home ministry and intelligence bureau.
Five hardcore Maoists, allegedly involved in a number of violent incidents, surrendered before security forces at two different places in Odisha's Malkangiri and Koraput districts on Tuesday.
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.
Maoists on Friday gunned down at least 11 policemen in an ambush that set off an encounter that left four ultras dead in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district.
Shrestha, his wife Nudup and a policeman guarding them were attacked near their residence at Bagdol-Sanepa while taking a stroll at around 7.30 am, an official at the prime minister's office said.
A voter turnout of over 40 per cent was recorded till 1 pm on Monday in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections in 96 constituencies spread over 10 states and Union Territories amid incidents of violence in Andhra Pradesh and reports of poll boycott in some villages of Uttar Pradesh.
Anti-terror agency National Investigation Agency will begin its probe on Monday -- into the deadly Naxal attack on Congress leaders in Chhattisgarh -- to find out possible lapses on the part of the central forces or the state government. Action will be taken if anyone is found guilty, Minister of State for Home RPN Singh said.
In a major breakthrough, Odisha Police have arrested two suspected Maoists who were accused of being involved in the May 25 deadly attack on a Congress convoy in Chhattisgarh.
After being ousted by the security forces, Maoists struck again -- the second attack in the past seven days -- killing a supporter of People's Committee against Police Atrocities and a Trinamool Congress member on Tuesday morning.
In an apparent damage control exercise in the Rajdhani hijacking case, a second First Information Report naming Maoists and a group backed by them has been filed by the Central Reserve Police Force, as against the Railway police's first FIR in which no group was mentioned. The CRPF had joined the state police in securing the Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express to end the five-hour hostage drama in Banstala in West Midnapore district in West Bengal on Tuesday.
In the first ever carnage during the National Democratic Alliance regime led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, 16 people were gunned down by suspected Maoist cadres in a village in Bihar's Khagaria district late on Thursday night."Nearly 100 people, suspected to be Maoists, armed with automatic weapons, attacked the village Amosi Bharen Diara and fired indiscriminately late on Thursday night, killing 11 men and 5 children on the spot," said a police official.
The Congress leader also said that the BJP wants to change the Constitution, and reduce and weaken the rights given to the people through the statute book.
The silence in the room was deafening except for the occasional muffled whimpers.
Over 100 heavily-armed Maoists on Friday attacked a base camp of Central Reserve Police Force and its Special Armed Force (SAF) inside a forest in Gaya district, sparking a heavy gunbattle.
More than 75 militia members from Korukonda Area Committee of Maoists on Saturday surrendered before the Visakhapatnam rural police on Saturday.
A 60-page report by the Human Rights Watch titled 'Between Two Sets of Guns: Attacks on Civil Society Activists in India's Maoist Conflict', documents human rights abuses against activists in India's Orissa, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh states. Rediff.com brings you this report in a three-part series
During last night's attack a sentry, a warder and a 'Ranvir Sena' leader Bade Sharma were gunned down at the overcrowded sub-jail
