Modi said the situation is rapidly changing and a new era of peace is setting in Naxal-affected areas.
Maoists torched three vehicles, two machines engaged in road construction work and four mobile towers at separate places in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district, the police said on Monday.
Of the ten police personnel who lost their lives in a Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, five had joined the force after quitting Maoist violence, a senior official said on Thursday.
Dinesh Tati (23), resident of Palnar village in Gangaloor police station limits, was held on Friday from a tractor showroom in Bijapur town, Additional Superintendent of Police Chandrakant Gavarna said.
A joint team of multiple forces are undertaking the offensive to target some senior and most-wanted Naxal commanders, official sources said.
'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.'
A cache of weapons, including an AK-47 rifle, one SLR (self-loading rifle), one INSAS rifle, one LMG rifle and one .303 rifle were also recovered from the encounter spot.
'The Maoists have weakened considerably in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh after Milind Teltumbde's death.'
The 24th CPI(M) Party Congress commenced in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, with interim coordinator Prakash Karat emphasizing the need for Left unity to combat "Hindutva neo-fascism." He criticized the BJP-RSS government, accusing it of representing a "Hindutva-corporate nexus" and displaying "neo-fascist characteristics." Other Left leaders, including CPI general secretary D Raja and CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, echoed calls for unity and condemned the current political climate in India.
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.
The explosive, however, remained "undetected" during the demining exercise conducted a day before the attack on Wednesday, they said.
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.
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.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday appealed to Naxals to give up violence, lay down arms and surrender, saying an all-out operation will otherwise be carried out against them.
Chairing a meeting to review the security situation in LWE-affected states, Shah said the Modi government has adopted a policy of zero tolerance against left wing extremism since 2014.
With this incident, 154 Naxalites have been gunned down by the security forces in different encounters in Chhattisgarh so far this year, the police said.
State Home Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu said that in 2013-14, the state had received Rs 50 crore for police modernisation from the Centre. The allocation has come down to Rs 20 crore right now.
It had organised its 83rd anniversary event last year in Jammu after the government asked all paramilitary or CAPF to hold these events outside the national capital.
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.
'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).
Ten Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security personnel in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district on Friday, a senior police official said. The gunfight broke out in the morning in a forest within the jurisdiction of the Bhejji police station when a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation. The operation was launched based on inputs about the presence of Maoists belonging to Konta and Kistaram area committees of Naxalites on forested hills of Korajguda, Dantespuram, Nagaram and Bhandarpadar villages. Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai hailed security forces and said the era of peace and progress has returned to the Bastar region, which includes Sukma.
Saibaba died at due to gall bladder infection and other complications.
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.
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.
Six members, including three women, of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) were killed in an alleged exchange of fire with the elite Greyhounds of Andhra Pradesh Police in Visakhapatnam district on Wednesday, while a fierce gunbattle took place between security forces and Maoists in neighbouring Odisha's Malkangiri district.
The accused, a contractor by profession, was absconding since the murder of journalist Mukesh Chandrakar came to light on January 3, he said.
The Medal for Gallantry recipients also included Humayun Bhat, a deputy superintendent of police who was one of four officers to lay down their lives during an encounter with terrorists in south Kashmir's Kokernag in September 2023.
Naxalites blew up the mini-goods van in which the security personnel were travelling by using an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), police sources said.
"With the death of RK, the outlawed CPI (Maoist) has lost its three central committee members and as many other senior cadres in the last two years. These deaths would certainly deplete the strength of the Naxal movement which has been losing its ground. Security forces would make an all-out attempt to soon bring an end to the five-decade-long mindless violence by ultras in the region," Inspector General of Police (Bastar range) Sundarraj P said.
Senior MHA officials referred to intelligence inputs regarding a possibility of a sudden surge in the activists of the Maoists and issued an alert for the police of the four states.
A bench of Justices V Ramasubramanian and Pankaj Mithal, which extended the protection from arrest to Gogoi till March 3, said it would hear the matter on Friday.
Scholar-activist Anand Teltumbde, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, is an 'active member' of the Communist Party of India-Maoist and 'deeply involved' in furtherance of the outfit's agenda, the National Investigatoin Agency (NIA) has told a special court in Mumbai.
Top Maoist leader Prashant Bose alias Kishan Da, who was carrying a bounty of Rs 1 crore on his head, has been arrested in Jharkhand along with his wife Sheela Marandi, a senior police officer said on Friday.
'Gyanendra back on the throne would be bad news for the Nepali people. He may not have learnt from his experience, but we have.'
Intensifying operations against the Naxals and chocking the flow of funds to them were the two key issues discussed at a high-level meeting chaired by Union home mAmit Shah and attended by six chief ministers and top officials of four other states here on Sunday, sources said.
Urging Naxals to shun violence, Shah announced that the Chhattisgarh government would announce a "new look" surrender policy in 1-2 months.
As a part of the 235 km Dallirajhara-Rowghat-Jagdalpur railway project, Antagarh, which has a Nagar Panchayat, is now connected to state capital Raipur by a train service.
CoBRA commando Rakeshwar Singh Manhas went missing after the April 3 ambush in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region.
Terming Naxals the biggest human rights violators, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said security forces have been carrying out 'offensive operations' instead of defensive against the insurgents and have achieved big successes in recent times.
A rail track between Sonua and Lotapahar stations in West Singhbhum, under Chakradharpur Division of South Eastern Railway (SER), was damaged past Friday night in a blast that was allegedly triggered by the Maoists.
