Claiming that Union Home Minister P Chidambaram was not interested in holding talks, Kishenji said both sides should sit for dialogue while ensuring that there was no state-sponsored terrorism and revenge tactics.
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam chief J. Jayalalithaa on Monday said the Centre should "go all out to eradicate" the Maoists.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday claimed that the Communist Party of India-Marxist was importing Maoists from Nepal and providing them with arms to terrorise people.
"I would like no ifs, no buts and no conditions," Chidambaram said in a statement in New Delhi, a day after the CPI-Maoists made a conditional ceasefire offer provided the government halted the offensive against them for 72 days and involve mediators for talks.
The last six to seven years of the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar has not seen any significant increase in Maoist violence, which nevertheless continues to take a toll of lives and government property.
'This was long expected because Mahendra Karma was on the Maoists's hit list... I don't think the Maoists cared as much about the consequences as they cared about the fact that they had to get rid of Mahendra Karma. Whatever else they do or don't do now, they can say they have revenged Salwa Judum.' Sociologist Nandini Sundar on the Maoist massacre and its aftermath.
A top Maoist leader, allegedly involved in the killing of five policemen and subversive activities ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, was arrested on Thursday in Latehar district of Jharkhand.
'While there are indications of failure in some aspects, only a thorough review will reveal how the police camp with adequate strength was overrun, when there was daylight, by the CPI (Maoist),' he said in a statement in New Delhi.
Suspected Maoists blew up a portion of railway tracks in Orissa in the wee hours on Wednesday causing derailment of a goods train and disrupting train services on the Howrah-Mumbai route.
A Bihar court on Friday acquitted 11 Nepali Maoist leaders after hearing the state government's petition for the withdrawal of criminal cases against them. Two days after the state government filed a petition in the Patna civil court for the withdrawal of cases, Additional District Judge Bashishtha Narain Singh ordered the acquittal of the Nepal Maoist leaders after holding a hearing on the petition.
"Talks have been suspended. There has been delay in resolving the issue as Odisha government is buying time instead of sincerely responding to the demands of the Maoists," mediators B D Sharma and Dandapani Mohanty told media persons in Bhubaneswar.
Maoists blew up tracks on the Jhaja-Jasidih section of the East Central Railway in Bihar's Jamui district and killed an alleged police informer in Orissa's Sundergarh district to enforce a 72-hour bandh in five states, on Sunday.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist), a Naxalite outfit, on Thursday slammed the Maoists for destroying the communist movement by indulging in individual annihilation and facilitating the despatch of para-military forces and commandos to Lalgarh.
The Centre on Monday said it banned Communist Party of India-Maoist as a terror organisation to avoid any ambiguity after the merger of Communist Party of India-(Marxist Leninist) Liberation and Maoist Communist Centre in 2004.
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.
Terming Thursday's attack on a passenger train in Jharkhand as a 'cowardly act', Union Home Secretary G K Pillai said on Friday that Maoists were terrorists and he had no sympathy for them.
The UNESCO-listed temple, which was closed temporarily on Friday after two Indian priests were trashed by Maoists, opened its doors for the public at 4.00 am as hundreds of worshippers queued up to offer prayers at the temple.
There was no possibility of holding talks with Maoists or tribal group PCPA, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee said on Sunday even as he maintained that law and order in Naxal-infested Lalgarh and adjacent areas has improved but more work needs to be done.
A day after Maoists' mediators announced that abducted Sukma Collector Alex Paul Menon will be released within 48 hours, the Chhattisgarh government said it was hopeful that the ten-day hostage crisis will come to an end today and the IAS officer would be freed by Wednesday. The breakthrough to ensure the safe return of the 32-year-old collector, who was abducted on April 21, came in the form of an agreement between the two mediators of the Chattisgarh government.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Monday said that there was some progress in the talks with Maoists for the release of abducted Sukma collector Alex Paul Menon, with both sides agreeing on some points.
Two tribals were killed by Maoists on suspicion of being police informers in Malkangiri, even as security forces launched an operation against the rebels at Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border.
In a candid conversation with rediff.com's Indrani Roy Mitra from an undisclosed location late on Wednesday night, Kishanji talked about his party's ideology, the road of violence, problems of tribals in Lalgarh among other things.
Maoist commander of Udanti-Raighar-Sinapali border area committee, operating in Orissa-Chhattisgarh border, Laxmidhar Nayak alias Gundadhul surrendered before police in Nabarangapur, Orissa.
The central committee of the banned Communist Party of India - Maoist had decided to eliminate Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Laxmananda Saraswati as he was opposing them in Kandhamal, according to the confessions of an arrested Maoist commander, who was allegedly involved in the killing in August last year.P Rama Rao alias Uday, arrested on April 20 from Raygada district, told interrogators that he was part of the 16-member Maoist team that gunned down Saraswati.
The Communist Party of India-Maoist denied their involvement in the Thursday's carnage in which 16 people were killed in Bihar's Khagaria district. "It is certainly not the operation carried out by our cadres... and we are still not aware who perpetrated the violence," a senior CPI-Maoist leader, pleading anonymity, told a group of mediapersons.
'It was like an 'agni pariksha' for me. I had to go through a test by fire twice'
The banned Communist Party of India - Maoist has threatened to kill Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar if two of their top leaders were not released from prison immediately, official sources said on Friday. 'Dabloo', a naxalite leader, in a sms to a reporter of a private TV channel, claimed that the Maoists planned to kill the chief minister, State Home Department Principal Secretary Amir Subhani said. The message demanded the release of Naxal leaders 'Raviji' and Diren Singh.
Two weeks after Maoists and police exchanged fire in Wayanad, a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet and two offices of the Forest department were on Monday attacked by suspected Maoists in Palakkad and Wayanad districts.
Kobad Gandhi, a CPI-Maoist Polit Bureau member, was apprehended by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police on Sunday night following an input received from intelligence agencies, they said. Police sources, however, refused to divulge from where he was arrested.
Maoists on Friday called a 72-hour bandh in five states and a partial bandh in three states to protest against talks, scheduled to be held in Kolkata, between the state governments and the Centre on issues of price rise and internal security. "We call for a 72-hour bandh on February 7, 8 and 9 fully in five states and partially in three states," said Maoist leader Kishenji. "The states where the bandh will be imposed fully are Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal."
Suspected Maoists shot dead a local Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader in Jhargram area of West Midnapore district on Monday, the police said.
Eight persons, including six policemen, were killed and four injured when Maoists attacked the convoy of former Jharkhand Speaker and Member of Parliament Inder Singh Namdhari, who escaped unhurt, in Latehar district on Saturday. The Maoists triggered an IED blast and then opened fire on the security vehicle which was following Namdhari's car at Ladu More in the district, Director General of Police G S Rath said.
Security forces on Saturday captured key Maoist stronghold of Ramgarh as they launched a two-pronged attack to reclaim areas in West Midnapore district under control of Left-wing ultras who offered stiff resistance by detonating landmines and opening gunfire.
Maoists for the first time claimed responsibility for the gruesome killing of Jharkhand police officer Francis Induwar.
In a surprise attack by the Maoists, four security personnel were killed and their arms looted in Jhargram sub-division of Naxal affected West Midnapore district on Sunday.
The chronology of major Maoist attacks in the country in the last five years
Two Communist Party of India-Marxist workers were reportedly hacked to death by the Maoists in West Bengal's West Midnapore district on Wednesday night.
In a bid to create terror and panic ahead of the polls, Maoists blew up a government middle school at Lakhisarai district in Bihar on early Thursday, just as the state was going to polls, the police said.
The apex court on July 28 granted bail to the two accused, noting that the actual involvement of Gonsalves and Ferreira in any terrorist act has not surfaced from any third-party communications.
