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.
The explosive, however, remained "undetected" during the demining exercise conducted a day before the attack on Wednesday, they 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Saibaba died at due to gall bladder infection and other complications.
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.
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.
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.
'Gyanendra back on the throne would be bad news for the Nepali people. He may not have learnt from his experience, but we have.'
'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).
Naxalites blew up the mini-goods van in which the security personnel were travelling by using an Improvised Explosive Device (IED), police sources said.
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.
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.
Urging Naxals to shun violence, Shah announced that the Chhattisgarh government would announce a "new look" surrender policy in 1-2 months.
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.
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
President Droupadi Murmu on July 5, 2024 conferred 10 Kirti Chakras, including seven posthumously, to personnel of the Army and paramilitary forces for displaying indomitable courage and extraordinary valour in the line of duty.
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.
CoBRA commando Rakeshwar Singh Manhas went missing after the April 3 ambush in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region.
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.
The troops of these two units are expected to be based in Samba and near the Jammu-Punjab border, the sources said.
An elusive figure, Hidma is a top leader of the outlawed Naxal outfit CPI (Maoist) and has been on the radar of security agencies for many years.
In a statement, the non-governmental organisation underscored the challenges Saibaba faced during his incarceration and the toll it took on his health.
Special Judge D E Kothalikar, assigned to hear cases of the NIA, had, on February 14, rejected the bail plea of Hany Babu, and the detailed order was made available on Monday.
'My health is very bad. I can't talk. I will have to first take medical treatment, and then only I will able to speak'
"Some are encouraging these Maoists to take up arms against the government," he alleged and asked the government to look into it.
Special judge DE Kothalikar, who rejected Swamy's bail plea on Monday, said in his order, which was made available on Tuesday, that based on the material on record it seemed Swamy was a member of banned Maoist organisation.
In 2017, a retired R&AW officer conveyed that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was keen to get monarchy restored in Nepal and suggested that I support these efforts.
