Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa explains why destroying mobile towers just before a political rally is a big headache for security agencies.
"It is certain that the information about their movement was leaked. Somewhere or at some stage this has happened. The boys were doing a surprise non-operational movement and hence were in mufti. We are looking into it," CRPF Director General K Durga Prasad said.
He survived the latest Naxal ambush on the Central Reserve Police Force in Chhattisgarh and got injured but has not lost his nerve and is raring to return to the jungles to avenge the death of his fellow security men.
In a separate incident, a commando of the Central Reserve Police Force's jungle warfare unit CoBRA was injured when a pressure improvised explosive device (IED), planted by Naxalites went off in the district, police said.
The Centre on Wednesday announced ex-gratia payment of Rs 15 lakh for kin of each of the 75 Central Reserve Police Force men killed in the Naxal attack on Tuesday in Chattisgarh's Dantewada district.
In a hard-hitting attack on Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Jharkhand for its "ineffective" anti-Naxal operations, Home Minister P Chidambaram has said despite the alarming escalation in Maoist violence, no serious effort has been made by the state government to deal with the extremists. In a letter to Chief Minister Arjun Munda, Chidambaram said Jharkhand became the most affected state in Naxal violence in 2011 and the situation there was a "major cause for concern".
At least five to six Naxalites are suspected to have been killed or injured in an exchange of fire that took place at Pomke Tadgaon in Bhamragarah taluka in Gadchiroli district on Wednesday morning, the police said.
A cache of arms and ammunition was recovered after a prolonged gunbattle between security personnel and Maoists in naxal-affected Kondagaon district of Chhattisgarh, police said on Friday. The exchange of fire took place in Chhote Usri's Patelpara forest under Mardapal police station limits Thursday evening, Kondagaon Additional Superintendent of Police Surjit Atri told PTI.
Vidya Charan Shukla, a Congressman by origin who changed parties and held key portfolios including external affairs, achieved fame during the infamous Emergency as a propagandist for Indira Gandhi's government. Son of illustrious Congressman and freedom fighter Pandit Ravishankar Shukla, the first chief minister of the re-organised Madhya Pradesh, V C Shukla entered Lok Sabha from Mahasamund after winning in the second general elections.
"I am sure that the attempts to stall development and throttle democracy at gunpoint will not be successful ever," the home minister said at the meeting, being held two weeks after 25 paramilitary personnel were killed by a band of Maoists in Chhattisgarh.
The police party was on their way to Kanker district in Bastar region for a combing operation when they were attacked by the rebels, Bastar IG A N Upadhyaya said, adding that the injured security personnel were rushed to Raipur hospital by helicopter.
Congress leader Ajit Jogi has filed a defamation case against Madhya Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party unit president Narendra Singh Tomar after the latter alleged that the former Chhattisgarh chief minister was involved in the conspiracy behind the fatal Naxal attack on Congress leaders in Bastar.
Union Minister Charan Das Mahant was on Monday appointed the acting Pradesh Congress Committee president of poll-bound Chhattisgarh, a week after senior party leaders in the state including PCC Chief Nand Kumar Patel were killed in a Naxal attack.
Fourteen Naxals including four women were arrested in two separate operations in the insurgency-hit regions of Chhattisgarh today, police said.
On an average, Naxals kill at least three persons in as many as six attacks every day. In the first six months of 2010, Maoists carried out a total of 1,103 attacks, in which 534 people were killed. This was disclosed by Home Minister P Chidambaram while speaking at a meeting of chief ministers to discuss the situation arising out of Maoist violence in the country. According to the data presented by the home minister, the extremists have killed 325 civilians.
Congress MPs on Tuesday staged a walkout from the Rajya Sabha during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's reply to the motion of thanks on President's address, alleging he was only speaking against the Congress party and not on the address.
A day after killing seven policemen in an ambush in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district, the Naxals on Sunday allegedly set ablaze at least 17 vehicles engaged in mining work in insurgency-hit Kanker district, police said.
'As Bharat Jodo Yatra entered Delhi, on 24th December 2022, the security of the Bharat Jodo Yatra was compromised on multiple occasions'
Four Central Reserve Police Force jawans were killed and as many injured when Naxals ambushed a road opening party of the security forces in Maoist-hit Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh on Wednesday, the police said.
On May 25, 2013, Naxals ambushed the Congress leaders' convoy in Jiram valley of Bastar's Darbha region.
The Naxals have stepped up the tempo and security agencies following the Dantewada attack had warned that there is more to come. Whatever intelligence that has been gathered on red terror would suggest that the forces are constantly increasing their capabilities, which include more men and sophisticated machinery.
The final rites of Chhattisgarh Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel and his son Dinesh, who were killed in the Naxal attack on Saturday, were performed with state honours at their native village Nandeli in Raigarh district on Monday.
Condemning the Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh, BJP today expressed its "shock" and concern over frequent targeting of political activist by Naxals and called for an aggressive, unified and non-partisan strategy to fight the menace.
Ahead of Lok Sabha polls, the Centre today reviewed the security situation in Naxal-affected states and directed security forces to foil any attempt by the rebels to disrupt the election process.
Three Chhattisgarh Armed Force jawans and a Naxalite were killed in an encounter between the ultras and security personnel in Maoist-hit Narayanpur district on Tuesday.
With the trains becoming soft targets of Maoists, the Railways has asked drivers to observe certain speed restrictions while moving through Naxal-affected areas to minimise damage.
A CRPF jawan was killed and another injured in a gun-fight with Naxals on Tuesday in Chhattisgarh's insurgency-hit Bijapur district.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday suggested that if the Congress comes to power, it would redistribute wealth of people to Muslims and cited former PM Manmohan Singh's remark that the minority community had the first claim on the country's resources.
Home Minister P Chidambaram will make an on-the-spot assessment and review the situation in Chhattisgarh after the Maoists carried out the deadliest attack and killed 76 CRPF personnel.
Hours after the deadly Naxal attack left 73 CRPF personnel dead in Chhattisgarh, Maoists on Tuesday claimed for the first time that their top leader Kishenji was alive and well.
"About four dozen armed guerrillas surrounded and blew up the middle school in Bhulsumia village under Charka-Pathar police station in Jamui," a district police official said.
The commander, identified only as Podia, was on Tuesday gunned down by police in Dantewada district, 450km from Raipur, Superintendent of Police Kamlochan Kashyap told PTI.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, who inaugurated the DGPs/IGPs Conference in New Delhi on Thursday, accepted the responsibility for violent Naxal incidents and said it was the government's duty to set out the context in which such terrorist attacks take place.
The Maharashtra government, reeling under criticism over handling of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, has received another jolt with the widow of former Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare saying the state police force is ill-equipped to fight terrorists.
An internal communication of the home ministry states that the Naxal movement is fast spreading to the southern states, and if immediate action is not taken it could blow up into a full-fledged menace, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
Ahead of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's rallies in Chhattisgarh on Wednesday, security forces averted a possible landmine explosion, as they diffused two Improvised Explosive Devices weighing 50 kg in the Dantewada area of the state.
Archana Masih meets two young people in a Raipur hospital who convey the human tragedy of a conflict that is destroying lives -- on both sides.
After the government came under opposition attack on the handling of Naxal violence, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said the state governments have the primary responsibility to fight the Maoist menace and the Centre was ready to assist them.
Naxals allegedly set on fire a conveyor belt of National Mineral Development Corporation in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district in the wee hours on Wednesday causing production disturbance to the tune of 40,000 tonnes.
Prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh has reportedly convened a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security at 5 pm on Tuesday to discuss the growing threat of the Naxal terror in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand.
