Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday said that though the counter-insurgency Unified Command comprising the state police, paramilitary force and the army was at work in the state to fight insurgents, special training would be given to the police force to fight Maoists.
The anti-terror agency, while referring to the evidence on record, claimed Navlakha was working in urban areas and assigned the job to unite intellectuals against government forces to defeat them.
Maoists on Friday killed five Forward Bloc workers at Jhalda in Purulia district on the suspicion that they were working as police informers. "Chapala Garai, Tapan Singh Sardar, Kinkar Singh, Rajesh Singh and Gopeswar Mahato were shot dead by armed Maoist cadres at Baghbinda village," said Superintendent of Police Sunil Kumar Chaudhuri.
The United Nations has expressed concern over the recruitment and use of minors by armed Maoists in India and said there were credible reports that some young ones were forcibly recruited from schools. In its latest report on children in armed conflicts, the United Nations expressed concern at the use of children by the Maoist armed groups in some districts of Chhattisgarh. It also highlighted an incident in which Maoists forced villagers to provide five boys and girls.
Deputy Police Superintendent A K Lal said about 40 Maoists activists armed with sophisticated weapons opened fire on Sharma's family. His wife along with an uncle and a bodyguard were killed in the incident, he added.
The alleged encounter killing of Communist Party of India Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad took a new twist on Saturday after it was revealed that the other 'Maoist leader' killed in the encounter was actually a freelance journalist from Delhi. The man has been identified as Hemchandar Pandey, 32, a resident of Dewaltal village in Pithorgarh in Uttarkhand. Pandey was a freelance journalist working in Delhi.
The report had also expressed concern over Maoist-related violence escalating in Orissa and Jharkhand.
A controversy erupted on Tuesday after the opposition parties tagged a video of DMK leader A Raja purportedly showing him making remarks that India has never been a nation, but a subcontinent with diverse practices and cultures, prompting strong response from the BJP which described the comments as a call for 'balkanisation' of the the country and demanded for his arrest.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday asked the Maoists to return to the mainstream and assured the rebels that the state government would make all arrangements for their rehabilitation.
Seeking intensification of the joint operations against Maoists, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) launched a scathing attack on the Trinamool Congress on Thursday for "playing footsie" with the extremists for electoral gains.
The Bihar government said it would further intensify anti-Naxal operations and rescue searches for the four abducted policemen, even as Maoists set an ultimatum to release their eight jailed cadres by Wednesday, failing which they would kill all the captives.
Block development officer of Tariyani in Sheohar district, Manoj Singh, was on Monday released by the Maoists, a top district police officer said.
After the clash on Wednesday, 29 dead bodies were recovered from the site and 40 Maoists, who sustained injuries have been admitted to the local hospital for treatment.
Bollywood's Shahenshah Amitabh Bachchan is Bihar's police mascot in their battle against Maoists -- to lure youths to join the forces instead of the rebels. M I Khan reports
Even as the slain top Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad was cremated in Hyderabad in the presence of hundreds of mourners, including writers, poets and activists, the CPI Maoist has announced a week-long protest against what they call a "fake encounter".
One of the top most leaders of CPI-Maoist in the country Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad was alive and safe, a senior Maoist leader has said.
Biju Janata Dal MLA Jhina Hikaka Monday completed a month in captivity of Maoists even as all including Odisha government were anxiously waiting for the 'praja (people's) court' proposed by the Naxals to decide the fate of the tribal legislator by April 25.
Union Minister of State for External Affairs General (retd) V K Singh opposed deployment of the Army in Maoist-affected areas on Tuesday, saying that the use of armed forces against "our own citizens" would "tarnish" its image.
The naxalites claimed that the Rani Bodli incident was an answer to the Salwa Judum (peace campaign) and anti-naxal operation in Bastar region.
A group of Maoists kidnapped a school headmaster in West Bengal's Bankura District on Friday evening and threatened to kill him if the state government failed to release the six villagers arrested after police officer Rabi Lochan Mitra's murder. On Friday evening, the armed Maoists barged into Shibram Satpathy School in Sarulia village of the District and went around searching for its headmaster Ranjit Duley.
Questioning the government's approach towards Maoists, members of an official panel that had looked into the issue of Left-wing extremism have said that instead of telling the ultras to abjure violence, both sides should declare a ceasefire and create an atmosphere for talks. "If the government is serious enough to alleviate the tribal problem, then it should persuade the Maoists to come for talks," said chairman of the panel and former IAS officer Debabrata Bandopadhyay.
Maoists have killed 137 civilians since January, suspecting some as police informers and others for failing to pay extortion money or for minor issues.
Normal life in the urban areas remained unaffected in Jharkhand's East and West Singhbhum and Seraikela-Kharswan districts during the 'Bharat bandh' called by Maoists.
The Centre and states need to synchronise their forces to tackle the surge in Maoist violence, believes former IPS officer Kiran Bedi.
Maoists were using 'sympathetic' students for 'overground' party work in the New Delhi where they were also organising displaced labourers under its umbrella, police sources said on Thursday.
Nepal's embattled Prime Minister Madhav Kumar announced his resignation in a television address to the nation on Wednesday to seek an end to the political impasse, as he succumbed to intense pressure from the opposition Maoists to make way for a "consensus" national government.
A day after 26 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel were killed and seven were injured in a Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarh''s Narayanpur District, the rebels have called for a shutdown in Jharkhand, Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Chhattisgarh.
Maoists on Wednesday abducted 19 railway employees, including a stationmaster in Bihar's Jamui district, but later released 16 of them in a forest, a railway official said.
With the arrest of key leader of the Communist Party of India-Maoist, Andhra Pradesh police have busted a big conspiracy to carry out attack on a senior political figure or police official in Mehbubnagar district bordering Karnataka.
Armed Maoists on Monday night ransacked Islampur railway station in Bihar's Gaya district and abducted the station master and two other railway employees as their 48-hour bandh began in five states, railway officials said.
Two hardcore Maoists, allegedly involved in an attack on JMM leader and former MP Sudama Marandi and killing of three policemen, were arrested from Orissa's Mayurbhanj district on Wednesday, the police said.
Over 30 Maoists came to the village, about 90 km from Koraput, on Sunday night and asked Ghasi Kendruka (35), a sikshyasahayak attached with a school, to come out of his house. They the took him to a nearby mango orchard and slit his throat, the police said
Nearly fifty armed Maoists entered a village and killed four people in Orissa's Rayagada district on Wednesday. Maoists entered a house in Pandratola village, approximately 350 kilometers from Bhubaneswar late on Wednesday night, and killed three people. Two other people were injured in the incident and were admitted to a hospital, and one of them later succumbed to his injuries.The Maoists reportedly killed these people on suspicion that they were acting as police informers.
The government on Tuesday, condemned the "mindless acts" of violence by Maoists during the 48-hour bandh call given by them in eight states, saying Naxals were not serious about their unilateral ceasefire call."It is clear the CPI( Maoist) are not serious about their pronouncement of stopping violence and having a meaningful dialogue with the government of India on various issues.
The government said on Wednesday that it has no evidence of China lending support to Maoists. "we have no evidence on reports that China is lending support to them (Maoists)," Home Minister P Chidambaram informed the Rajya Sabha during Question Hour. He said the government also did not have any information on Maoists receiving any support from anti-national forces.
The ruling Congress, voted to office in 2018 after 15 years in opposition, and the Bharatiya Janata Party are the main contenders for power in the state, where the Aam Aadmi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and some regional outfits are also in the fray.
Nepali Maoists have launched an anti-India propaganda in Nepalganj town in Banke division of southern Nepal, about 30 km across the Indo-Nepal border from Bahraich. The campaign sims at provoking India and also throwing Nepal Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal out of power.
Several trains in Jharkhand were either cancelled or diverted to avoid Naxal pockets and security beefed up as the two-day shut down called by the CPI-Maoist in Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal began on Monday.
Maoist ultras have asked Bihar assembly Speaker Udai Narain Choudhary to present the 'hishab-kitab' (a complete account) of the work he has done in his constituency.Choudhary, the first Dalit Speaker of the Bihar assembly, is a legislator from the Maoist-infested Imamganj in Gaya district. The Maoists have threatened that they will not allow polls to be held in that area and urged people to boycott elections in the constituency.
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