Suspected Maoists shot dead a local Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader in Jhargram area of West Midnapore district on Monday, the police said.
The development comes nearly a month after Chief Minister Baghel said that his government was ready to hold talks with the rebels if they expressed faith in the Constitution.
A shrewd fighter and a marksman, top Maoist leader Kishenji spent three decades of his life in hiding, waging a relentless, bloody war against the state to emerge as the biggest security headache for the West Bengal government and the Centre.
The central committee of the banned Communist Party of India - Maoist had decided to eliminate Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmananda Saraswati as he was opposing them in Kandhamal, according to the confessions of an arrested Maoist commander, who was allegedly involved in the killing in August last year.P Rama Rao alias Uday, arrested on April 20 from Raygada district, told interrogators that he was part of the 16-member Maoist team that gunned down Saraswati.
Maoist leader Kishenji has said Hyderabad is an integral part of Telangana region and the city should be made the capital of the new state when it comes into being.
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.
The kidnapping and subsequent beheading of Jharkhand Police Inspector Francis Enduwar was in retaliation to the offensives mounted by the Jharkhand police and not related to the arrest of senior Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy, the state police said on Tuesday. "We had killed one and arrested another armed dalam member in recent times. The posters we recovered tell us that the killing of Inspector Enduwar was in retaliation to these successes of the Jharkhand police," said a cop.
Andhra Pradesh police recovered Rs 32 lakh in cash and arrested two persons, including a Telugu Desam Party leader, after a brief encounter with Maoists in Bhadrachalam forest area in Khammam district on Friday.
The CPI (Maoist) on Sunday vowed to avenge the death of its top leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad in an encounter with police in Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh.
During the operation, members of the proscribed People's Liberation Front of India opened fire at approaching security personnel and the law enforcers retaliated, he said.
Maoist leader Koteshwar Rao on Thursday asked both the West Bengal and the Union governments to halt police action or risk harm to kidnapped police officer Attendranath Dutta.
'The strategy of frontal organisations of the Maoists is to create unrest and ensure that such unrest leads to a law and order problem.' 'To cover such acts it was necessary to bring in a different definition of unlawful activities which is different from the definition of unlawful activities in the UAPA.'
An AK-47 rifle, one SLR, three Insas rifles and a .303 rifle were also recovered from the encounter spot.
Despite major setbacks, the Maoists' ability to inflict damage on the State and maintain its position as the saviour of the tribals will keep them relevant, says Bibhu Prasad Routray.
Body of Hemchandar Pandey, the man who was killed along with the top Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad by the Andhra Pradesh police in Adilabad district on July 2, was brought to Hyderabad on Tuesday and was kept at the Basheerbag Press Club.
The identity of the suspected Maoist leader, who made an unsuccessful bid for a dramatic escape during transit by raising a false alarm, has been ascertained as Ravi Sharma, a scientist working with an agriculture university in Patna with alleged Naxal links, the Hazaribagh police said on Tuesday.
The Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray, in a rare instance since the undivided Shiv Sena's fall out with the BJP in 2019, praised Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday for his efforts to turn Naxal-hit Gadchiroli district into a steel city.
Sudhakar Reddy, one of the most wanted Maoist leaders, was member of the Central Committee and Central Military Commission of the outfit besides handling its intelligence wing. Another senior Maoist, Komati Venkataiah alias Prasanna, was also killed in the encounter.
Azad, an M Tech degree holder from Warangal regional engineering college, had been with the Maoist movement since the last three and a half decades and had the reputation of being an expert strategist. He was an accused in the killing of Congress legislator C Narsi Reddy along with 10 others in Mahbubnagar district on August 15, 2005.
'Gyanendra back on the throne would be bad news for the Nepali people. He may not have learnt from his experience, but we have.'
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Saturday conveyed India's 'deep disappointment' to Maoist leader Prachanda over his verbal attacks on the country, terming them 'baseless propaganda'. During a meeting with Prachanda in Kathmandu, Krishna asked the Maoists to fulfill their peace process commitments and join the consensus on concluding the peace process and drafting the new constitution by the targeted date of May 28. Krishna "conveyed deep disappointment".
The claims of the activists have evoked a strong reaction from the state police chief RR Girish Kumar who insisted that there was no truth in these allegations. These are false baseless allegations against the police, he said adding that the vested interest at the behest of CPI Maoist were misquoting the contents of the post mortem.
Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday made it clear that there was no demand from Naxals for any swap of prisoners for the policeman whose body with severed head was found this morning in Jharkhand.
The accused, a contractor by profession, was absconding since the murder of journalist Mukesh Chandrakar came to light on January 3, he said.
'Counter-insurgency operations cannot be conducted by following inflexible SOPs.' 'It is unwise to enter jungles with a large body of troops without precise intelligence,' asserts counter-insurgency expert Brigadier Narender Kumar (retd).
Maharashtra Police on Thursday questioned Delhi University professor G N Saibaba for his alleged links with Maoists, the second time in three months.
Barely three days after the killing of a former Naib Sarpanch in Malkangiri district, armed Maoists killed the son of a ruling Biju Janata Dal leader and block chairman in Bolangir district early on Wednesday, police said.
A top Maoist leader on Sunday said they would release Paolo Bosusco, the other Italian national still held captive by them, only after they feel that the Odisha government was serious about their demands.
Indian Mujahideen co-founder Yasin Bhatkal sought the help of Nepal-based Maoists for procuring arms and ammunition but it did not fructify as they quoted very high rates, the National Investigation Agency has said in its charge sheet filed in a Delhi court.
Maoists on Monday kidnapped two people, including a local Bharatiya Janata Party leader, in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh in separate incidents.
More than two decades after deserting their village due to Maoists, around 25 tribal families are planning to return to their native place in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district.
The explosive, however, remained "undetected" during the demining exercise conducted a day before the attack on Wednesday, they said.
"I cannot say for sure. There are several people who are known as Kishenji. There is also a possibility of existence of dummies," West Midnapore SP Manoj Kumar Verma told PTI.
The surrendered top Maoist leader in Andhra Pradesh Sambasivudu was today allowed to meet his family after which he visited a house in Vanasthalipuram area where his parents and daughter were staying with relatives and met them after several years. It was an emotional reunion as tearful parents and daughter Swarnalatha received him
'Their brains trust has been severely depleted. The situation at the senior level is really bad,' a senior intelligence official said.
Eight persons, including a Maoist leader, were sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment on Thursday by a court in Kandhamal district for the murder of senior Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmanananda Saraswati and four others in 2008 that triggered communal violence leaving 37 dead.
With all the evasions, one assertion made by the Pune (Rural) police stood out: They had found no connection of the Elgar Parishad with the violent incidents of January 1, 2018. Yet, the case against the 'Bhima Koregaon 16', which is based on exactly this alleged connection, continues, and seven of the accused continue to be behind bars under the UAPA, explains Jyoti Punwani.
Bihar has tightened its security after the Intelligence Bureau issued an alert about a possible Maoist attack in the state to avenge the killing of a woman Naxal leader, police said on Saturday.
In two separate attacks, suspected Maoists triggered a blast on the railway tracks in Jharkhand's Giridih district, damaging its fish plates, and also blew up a mobile tower in Hazaribag, the police said.
Maoists on Thursday attacked a police station and the house of a Congress leader in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, killing two of his relatives and leaving two others injured, including his son. Armed Naxalites struck at the Kuakonda police station in the district in the wee hours of Thursday. The policemen retaliated by opening fire. According to the police, six Naxals were killed in the attack, but their bodies are yet to be recovered.
