A day after Union Home Secretary G K Pillai said Maoists had plans to overthrow the Indian state by 2050, top Naxal leader Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji on Saturday claimed it would be achieved much before that date.
Maoists on Friday exploded a bomb in Meghatpur mine and planted another at Kiribur, both run by public sector Steel Authority of India Limited along the Orissa-Jharkhand border. The attack comes hours after the Maoists blasted rail tracks in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum district that derailed the Tata-Bilaspur passenger train leaving two passengers dead.
Maoist-nominated mediators on Monday refused to issue an appeal to the ultras for early release of a ruling Biju Janata Dal MLA and an Italian, held captive by different rebel groups, and instead asked Odisha government to release "innocent" people jailed on the charge of being Naxal.
A senior security official has claimed that the Maoists had carefully planned the detention of the New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express and the five-hour hostage crisis on Tuesday.
Having lost six of their men -- including two high-ranking officers -- the security forces, who restarted their battle against the Maoist insurgency with renewed vigour, are buoyant for one particular reason. Operation Red Hunt in Chattisgarh is a psychological victory for the forces that were till recently firmly on the backfoot in their fight against red terror.
According to sources in Bhandaria police station, about 50 Maoists waiting for the police party triggered the blast around 11 am.
The Maoists exploded IEDs on the tracks between Nishitpur and Matari railway stations late Sunday night, according to Divisional Operative Manager Ved Prakash.
The threat posed by the burgeoning Maoist movement is grave and if it is not controlled in time, the Indian democracy could be in serious danger, believes Mahendra Lal Kumawat, former director general of the Border Security Force and former special secretary (internal security).
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. This is the final part of the three-part series
With the Naxals facing the heat of an imminent concerted operation by the security forces, a top Maoist leader on Thursday said the ultras were ready for talks 'if there was ceasefire on both sides' and withdrawal of the paramilitary forces deployed in the Naxal-hit states.
Chhattisgarh, carved out of Madhya Pradesh in November 2000, is confronting the menace for decades with 12 of its 16 districts in the Naxals' grip.
An Andhra Pradesh based couple, allegedly behind the spurt in Naxal violence in Bihar and Jharkhand, has been arrested.
Maoists blew up a panchayat office in Jharkhand's Lohardaga district, police said.
The Centre is keen on a probe to find out if the violence in the Maruti plant in Manesar has any Maoist link.
The reference to CRPP as a Maoist front organisation came in a written reply in Rajya Sabha by Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Home Affairs.
The bandh, which began at post midnight on Wednesday is in protest against the reported arrest of Maoist cadres in neighbouring Odisha.
Maoists on Saturday abducted a Member of Legislative Assembly from the Biju Janata Dal while he was returning home from Koraput district, leading to suspension of negotiations between the authorities and ultras for the release of two Italian nationals taken hostage by the rebels ten days ago.
India for the first time has said that the Maoists are getting arms from China, which is a "big supplier" of small weapons.
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.
Police sources said that two years ago a rich farmer Maheshwar Singh was killed by Maoists.
There was a half hour firefight between the Maoists and the police on Friday night at a jungle under Sorada police station area bordering Kandhamal district, before the ultras fled, a senior police official who took part in the operation told PTI.
The labourers were released on Friday night at a forest adjoining the villages where the labour camps from where they were abducted were located.
'A prohibition is not going to have any influence on our party's activities. In fact, it will only infuse into us a new sense of grit to counter the government opposition,' says Gour Chakraborty, the CPI (Maoist) spokesman.
Bowing to demand by Maoists that it withdraw cases against 13 prisoners for the freedom of Biju Janata Dal MLA Jhina Hikaka, the Odisha government on Wednesday announced that it was agreeable to do so after expiry of the deadline set by the ultras at 5 pm.
The government will use any element of its 'national power' against Maoists under a new policy to deal with the extremists and not hold peace talks with them till they renounce violence and express faith in democracy.
Indicating active involvement of Maoist elements in the killing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxamananda Saraswati and four others, the Crime Branch of Orissa police on Friday submitted chargesheet against seven accused. The chargesheet, filed in the court of sub-divisional judicial magistrate, Baliguda in Kandhamal district four months after the killing, said Maoist leaders had formed a local militia involving villagers for the crime.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh said that no dialogue should be held with the outlawed Maoists who carried out a deadly attack recently in Chhattisgarh against Congress party leaders.
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.
Investigators on Friday told a Delhi court that Mohammad Omar Madni, a suspected terrorist, has disclosed about the links between Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Maoists in Jharkhand.
Italian tourist Claudio Colangelo, who was released on Sunday after being in Maoist captivity for 11 days, said he became victim of an ongoing tussle between the ultras and the government.
J B Punamagar, the Butawal-based reporter of Himal Khabarpatrika, was abducted by a group of Maoists while he was reporting in Kapilvastu district, according to the Federation of Nepalese Journalists.
'Menon's kidnappers are unlikely to behave like the radical Islamists who have a tendency to displease their own people and community. The Maoists are shrewd and will bargain hard, but not behave recklessly. Young Christians are their primary constituency and they bank heavily on them in the jungles.'
"There were some women cadre also in the Maoist contingent that attacked the train on Thursday," Additional Director General of Police (ADG), Law and Order S K Bhardwaj told PTI.
50 of at least 350 children abducted by the rebels managed to escape, state media said.
Maoists in Chhattisgarh have invited the state government for peace talks provided a 'conducive and pro-people atmosphere' is created.
In one of the biggest encounters in the recent times with the Maoists, involving the Andhra Pradesh police and Central paramilitary forces, 10 left-wing ultras were killed while scores of others were injured.
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