India has launched a major offensive codenamed 'Operation Green Hunt' against Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh on Thursday. The assault 'Green Hunt' was launched against insurgents in Chhattisgarh--the epicentre of violence between Maoist fighters, security forces and pro-government militias since 2005.
The blockade, which began at midnight, had no impact in West Bengal and Orissa. Maoists, however, partially damaged a BSNL tower at Balimela near Malkangiri in Orissa in a landmine attack.
Bihar Police officials say that the strategy has clicked, as the SPOs have passed lot of vital information to the police leading to the arrest of top Maoist leaders.
"We are going to villages surrounding Ramgarh and consolidating our position and reassuring the people that they were now free from the fear of Maoists," Burdwan Assistant Superintendent of Police Humayun Kabir told PTI.
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.
After a sustained operation along the Jharkhand-West Bengal border, the anti-Naxal forces will soon launch an offensive along the crucial borderline of Orissa and Chhattisgarh which is considered a Maoist stronghold.
The personnel belonging to the CRPF's elite Commando Battalion for Resolute Action unit, the District Reserve Guard and the Special Task Force were involved in the operation.
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In one of the deadliest blows to Naxalites in Chhattisgarh, security forces on Sunday gunned down 31 rebels, including 11 women, in a fierce encounter in the state's Bijapur district, police said.
The Maoists who are trying to gain a stronghold in Assam have 114 identified cadres working in the state, as per the information gathered by the special task force of Assam Police that was constituted to study the menace.
Three battalions of the Border Security Force comprising more than 3,000 personnel will move across the border from Odisha to Chhattisgarh and an equal number of Indo-Tibetan Border Police units will further move into the Naxal stronghold of Abujhmad as part of a strategy to intensify anti-Maoist operations in their last bastions, official sources said.
Launching their final offensive to reclaim the areas held by the Maoists in West Midnapore district, security forces started marching towards Kantapahari -- the last stronghold of the Maoists -- from both Lalgarh and Ramgarh on Monday.The forces, comprising 1600 men of the Central Reserve Police Force, Border Security Force, State Armed Police and India Reserve Battalion, set out at approximately 7 am from Lalgarh and Ramgarh in a pincer movement.
A search operation was underway on Sunday to trace 18 security personnel who went missing after a fierce gun-battle with Naxals in a forest along the border of Bijapur-Sukma districts in Chhattisgarh, police said.
After reclaiming control of key Lalgarh police station area, security forces on Sunday pushed deeper to break the Maoist siege of 17 villages considered strongholds of the ultras and tribals backed by them.
The Bihar police have arrested a Central Reserve Police Force assistant commandant in Gaya district on Thursday night, on charges of leaking information to Maoist guerillas and for his nexus with them, police sources have said.
Maoists in West Bengal have apparently been shifting base from their strongholds in Lalgarh and Belpahari in the last two months, with killings and violence increasingly taking place in Jhargram subdivision, 40 km away in restive West Midnapore district. Police sources attribute this to the strong security presence in Belpahari and Lalgarh.There are seven camps of the joint security forces in Lalgarh and nine in Belpahari while there are only three camps in Jhargram.
The Maoist who has emerged as the major threat to the security forces in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district.
Maoists have called for a 24-hour shutdown on Saturday in the five states of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar and Chhattisgarh to protest the killing of their leader Lalmohan Tudu.
In a major joint offensive, separate joint teams of security forces, comprising over 2,000 personnel, had launched an anti-Naxal operation from Bijapur and Sukma districts in the South Bastar forests, considered as the Maoist stronghold, on Friday night.
Over 100 Naxals on Wednesday ambushed a team of security forces in Chhattisgarh's tribal belt of Bastar on the eve of Lok Sabha polls, killing three commandos of CRPF's CoBRA battalion and injuring five others including two officers in twin attacks.
The fight against ultras will be intensified to end the Naxal menace, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Monday as he took stock of the situation in the aftermath of the killing 22 security personnel in an attack by the rebels in Chhattisgarh.
Roads are of great importance to win the war against the rebels in Sukma
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High voter turnout was recorded in most of the seven assembly constituencies in six states where by-elections were held on Tuesday.
After 12 days in captivity, Sukma Collector Alex Paul Menon was on Thursday released unharmed by Maoists bringing to an end the hostage crisis in Chattisgarh marked by some anxious moments just before he stepped out of the rebel stronghold.
The battle to recapture Lalgarh from Maoists began in right earnest on Thursday as the police and central forces today stormed the area smashing a human shield of tribal agitators with a barrage of teargas shells and lathi-charges. A 600-strong mob of tribals armed with lathis, axes, spears, bows and arrows blocked the road when the security forces arrived and shouted at the police asking them to apologise for alleged atrocities, a PTI correspondent on the spot saw.
Once an auto-rickshaw driver in Thane city adjoining Mumbai, Shinde (58) quickly emerged as a key Sena leader in the Thane-Palghar region after joining politics and is known for aggressive approach towards issues of public interest.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Dr Y S Rajashekhara Reddy's twin-engined Bell 430 AP helipcopter took off at 8.45 am on Wednesday and was scheduled to land at Chitoor district at 10.45 am. However, it soon lost radio contact and has been untraceable, ever since.
The naxals were enforcing a 24-hour bandh to protest the arrest of their leaders, including its chief of Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and north Bihar, Tushar Kant Bhattacharya.
The Trinamool Congress on Monday appeared set to sweep the crucial panchayat poll in West Bengal with a huge margin in most of the districts, taking a comfortable lead in gram panchayat in 12 of 17 districts.
Communication, dated February 17 to all state governments, said the CPI (Maoist) planned to capture attention once again
Government has received reports that Naxals have undertaken employment in urban areas in order to earn livelihood and evade police action, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.
With the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) planning to create disturbances to mark its decade of formation this September, police is bracing up to counter any such move and make people aware about the "futility" of the rebel movements.
The bandh was called by Left parties in protest against CAA and NRC. It is being supported by several small political parties of the state.
One such village, Mushantand , that comes under the Imamganj block in Gaya is in grip of an acute water scarcity this summer. This village is also part of the region close to the Bihar-Jharkhand border, known as a stronghold of Maoists.
The deadly Maoist ambush, claiming the lives of 14 Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, was planned and supervised by local Naxal leaders who were reportedly camping in south Bastar for past few days, a senior police official said on Tuesday.
The first phase of the crucial panchayat polls in West Bengal will begin on Thursday even as the ruling Trinamool Congress kept up its attack against the State E1lection Commission.
The Bihar government on Wednesday issued shoot-at-sight orders against troublemakers and made tight security arrangements to ensure violence free polling in 6 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats to be held on Thursday.
Bad weather and hostile terrain have hampered the evacuation operation in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Sukma district where armed rebels had on Saturday ambushed a team of Special Task Force killing seven personnel.
