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.
Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh had a talk with Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday about security related, developmental and the political situation on Ground Zero in Chhattisgarh's tribal area.
Social activist Swami Agnivesh who is trying to negotiate between the Maoists and Centre met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi on Tuesday and requested an impartial judicial probe into the murder of Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad who was killed on July 2.
Is the number 3 rank in the Communist Party of India (Maoist) hierarchy jinxed? Two top Naxal leaders -- Kishenji and Azad -- have been killed by the security forces while holding the same position.
Expressing doubts over the Maoists' claim of having killed leader Lakshmananda Saraswati, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on Monday insisted that 'a sect of Christians' was behind the murder that has sparked widespread rioting in Orissa.VHP General Secretary Pravin Togadia said his organisation and the Maoists have no reasons for confrontation and the Maoists could have made the claims under 'Communist Influence' to divert attention.
Ahead of a key party meet, Nepal's Maoists have stepped up their anti-India campaign demanding an end to alleged 'intervention' in their country and abolition of all "unequal" treaties.
Kharge accused PM Modi of inciting people over the issues "that the Congress will never do".
The police in Kerala and the Anti-Terrorism Squad have started massive combing operations into the brake pipe cutting incident of the Nilambur-Shoranur passenger train, which was discovered before the train was to leave Nilambur station at 5.30 am on Thursday.
Three Forward Bloc activists were shot dead by armed Maoists in West Bengal's Purulia district on Sunday night. According to sources, nearly 50 armed Maoists raided Chirogora village late on Sunday night and dragged out the three activists from their houses and shot them dead. The deceased were identified as Leru Majhi, Dasrath Majhi, and Choto Majhi.
Defending Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Sunday that he found "nothing wrong" in the key United Progressive Alliance ally's statement that the killing of top Maoist leader Azad was not correct.
With the Maoists sweeping the Constituent Assembly polls bagging 106 out of the 190 declared so far and leading in 11 others, the party has initiated serious consultations including a meeting with Prime Minister G P Koirala on modalities to form the new government. Results for 50 seats are awaited out of the 240 at stake in direct elections. The Maoists are on track to become the single largest party.
Three Central Reserve Police Force commandos, who formed the strike squad that killed top Maoist leader Kishenji, have been named for President's police medals for gallantry on the eve of Republic Day.
Maoists are ready for talks if the Centre stops operations against them, their leader Kishenji said on Friday.
Referring to the arrest of military operations leader Venkatshewar Reddy alias Telugu Dipak on March two from Howrah, Maoist leader Kishenji said: "The arrest will strengthen our resolve to fight state sponsored terrorism. We will make our movement in the country stronger and sharper."
Indian intelligence agencies have often claimed that left-wing extremists are trying to make inroads in the militancy-hit regions of north-east to foment further unrest. But Jaideep Saikia, noted terrorism and conflict analyst, claims, "People who speak of Maoism taking roots in the north-east have not read history".
Five Maoists, including a top aide of the outfit's senior leaders Kishenji and Telgu Dipak, were arrested from the outskirts of Kolkata on Tuesday. Acting on a tip-off, five Maoists were arrested from South 24 Parganas, adjoining the metropolis, said Inspector General of Police Neeraj Nayan. Of the arrested ultras, Madhusudhan Mondal alias Narayan, Rajesh Mondal, Sachin Ghosal were arrested from Amtala, while Siddhartha and Sanjay were arrested from Garia, he said.
A trade union leader, arrested in the capital during investigations into Maoist network, was the Delhi chief of proscribed Communist Party of India-Maoist who was looking after party operations in the city, police sources said on Wednesday.
With Maoists stepping up activities in the wake of a joint operation, the Orissa government has issued an advisory to its ministers, urging them not to undertake road journey at night in Naxal-infested districts, official sources said. "In the existing scenario, it is imperative to apprise political leaders, including ministers, to avoid road journey during odd hours of night, especially in Maoist-infested areas," a Special Branch report to the home ministry said.
'Rahul should have learnt so much in the last 20 years. But give him a mic and he begins to talk without thinking about its consequences.'
A Ganesh Nadar visits Tirunelveli where there's unrest following Saturday's Maoist abduction of Alex Paul Menon, the collector of Sukma district in Chhattisgarh, who belongs to this district.
'After exiting jail, I thought some of my IIM-A classmates would contact me. None did.' 'The case indeed scared people, which perhaps was the objective of the State.'
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will convene a high level meeting to rework the government's anti-Naxal strategy on May 24, even as Home Minister P Chidambaram has taken on his own party for undermining the ongoing fight against the Maoist onslaught and asked leaders like Digvijay Singh and Arun Jaitley (without naming them) to take a broader overview of the Naxal issue and refrain from weakening the government.
Six Naxals, including a woman cadre, and a jawan of the Central Reserve Police Force were killed on Monday after a night-long encounter with the paramilitary force in the district of West Bengal.
A policeman was on Tuesday gunned down by Maoists in Jharkhand's Sareikela-Kharsawan district as their 48-hour shutdown entered the second day.
Besides weakening the Maoists' lethal capacities and reducing violence, it is essential to ensure that governance is improved, so that those prone to sympathising with, or supporting, the Maoists would, in the long run, realise the needlessness and futility of doing so, says P V Ramana and Raj Bala Rana.
At the Trinamool Congress rally in Lalgarh on Monday Union Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee condemned Maoist leader Azad's death in a police encounter, embarrassing her government which has resisted calls for an investigation into the incident. Some questions
The Maoists on Wednesday offered to release one of the two Italians held captive by them if two of their demands, including the release of some rebels, were met, as the Odisha government asked its mediators to contact their counterparts chosen by the captors.
A National Investigation Agency team arrived in Malkangiri on Thursday to record the statements of two Maoists who have admitted to the Odisha police that they were involved in the May 25 attack in Chhattisgarh in which several Congress leaders were killed.
Maoist rebels have put up posters in Latehar district of Jharkhand, calling upon people to spurn the initiatives of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Home Minister P Chidambaram.
The Communist Party of India-Maoist on Tuesday finally broke its silence over the tragic death of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. The outlawed organisation described his death as the end of an era of a 'dictator, a war lord and an undemocratic World Bank agent'.Koteshwara Rao alias Kishenji, a senior underground leader of the CPI-Maoist, dismissed the outpouring of grief across the state after YSR's demise as an orchestrated show.
Maoists have started losing their sway over the people of Lalgarh and its surrounding areas in the wake of a sustained operation by the joint forces and the arrest of tribal leaders Chhatradhar Mahato and Sukhshanti Baske.
As the Maoists paralysed normal life in Nepal for the second day in running, the government beefed up security on Monday amid warning by a top former rebel leader that they may declare a new constitution from the streets.
An image of Maoist leader Prachanda speaking at a public function.
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.
"Maoists were given money to train certain youth of a particular community to eliminate Saraswati," inspector general of police, crime branch, Arun Ray told PTI asserting the mastermind of the killings had been identified.
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.
Telugu poet and Maoist sympathiser Varvara Rao on Friday alleged that top Maoist leader Kishenji was tortured before being killed in a fake encounter and demanded a white paper from the West Bengal government. "Kishenji was subjected to inhuman torture as his body bore marks of several injuries and he was killed in a fake encounter 24 hours after being nabbed. I demand a white paper on the killing," Rao told reporters at the state secretariat.
Hitting out at the Biju Janata Dal government over the abduction of a tribal MLA, the opposition Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party in Odisha on Saturday accused it of being hand in glove with Maoists and pushing the state into anarchy by ignoring Centre's advisories.
