The Indian Air Force can fire in self-defence if its helicopters engaged on logistical missions in Maoist-infested areas are attacked, said a well placed source. The IAF has deployed its special Garuda helicopter force to counter attacks while operating in Naxal dominated areas even as the debate rages on the deployment of the armed forces in anti-Maoist operations.
The IAF deployed five helicopters to evacuate casualties of the naxal attack on a Congress party function in Sukma district in Chhattisgarh and ferried 11 critically-injured persons to Raipur for treatment.
A security personnel was killed and another got injured in an encounter with Naxalites in the Maoist-hit Sukma district of southern Chhattisgarh Friday.
"The two LeT operatives had reportedly attended the meeting as observers at a forested location inside Orissa, close to Chhattisgarh's Bastar region," Director General of Police Vishwa Ranjan said.
The encounter, which took place in the jungles of Silger, a "liberated" Maoist zone between the naxal hotbed of Jagargunda and Basaguda in Dantewada, was launched on Thursday night by the CRPF from three directions.
Top sources in the air wing said that while two 'Dhruvs' are gathering dust at the Raipur airbase for the last two months as their spare parts are unavailable, the third is with the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, as it had clocked 500 flying hours after which it needs servicing.
Police teams from Bihar and Jharkhand are likely to launch a joint operation against Naxalites in the border districts in the two states. The operation follows a Naxal attack at Chilkhadia village in Giridih district on Saturday morning which killed seventeen people, including the younger son of former Jharkhand chief minister Babulal Marandi. Official sources in the chief minister's office in Patna said that a joint operation against Naxalites will be launched soon.
The jawans reportedly had a brawl before the fatal incident took place.
Three jawans of the Sashastra Seema Bal were killed and another seriously injured on Friday when a mini truck of the force was blown up in a landmine explosion triggered by Maoists in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, said the police. "Three jawans of SSB died while another personnel was injured when the vehicle came in contact with a landmine planted by the Maoists," said Additional Director General (Naxal Operations) Ram Nivas.
Date, a 1990 Indian Police Service officer of the Maharashtra cadre who once sold newspapers in Pune to financially support his family, was honoured with the President's Police medal for gallantry for his role in what has come to be known as the 26/11 attack.
The security forces nabbed two ultras after intensifying combing operation on the sixth day today, flushing out the Naxals hiding in various jungles in the borders of Kandhmal and Ganjam, after the mayhem. Sources said that Mahipur outpost constable Chintamani Sahu, who was admitted along with seven others at the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, succumbed to the injuries on Wednesday night.
Nine persons, including five policemen, were killed and as many were wounded as CPI-Maoist rebels carried out simultaneous attacks on a police station and an outpost in Rohtas district.
As the deadline set by two Maoist groups in the twin hostage crisis ends on Tuesday, the Odisha government seemed to have toughened its stance vis-a-vis their new demands.
Maoists on Friday gunned down at least 11 policemen in an ambush that set off an encounter that left four ultras dead in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district.
'A demonstration of the force by the State will wean away a large portion of sympathisers. The hardcore ideologically motivated cadres are not likely to be affected by this, but it will ease the path of the impending operations by lowering the morale of the Naxal rank and file and raising that of the police forces as well as common people.'
Security forces of Bihar, neighbouring Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand have launched a joint Operation Vishwas to apprehend Maoists in the wake of hundreds of people in Naxal-hit Rohtas district having escaped from their villages in fear of the ultras, a police official said on Saturday.
The Naxals on Wednesday carried out two powerful blasts in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, injuring two Central Reserve Police Force personnel. The blast comes a day before Lok Sabha polls in the area.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Wednesday said the brutal Maoist attack in Dantewada, in which 76 security personnel were killed, is a reminder that no state government can single-handedly tackle Naxal violence and called for a coordinated action by the Centre and the states.
Hundreds of Central REeserve Police Force troops deployed for anti-naxal operations in Bastar region of Chattisgarh were in for a pleasant surprise when they found their chief K Vijay Kumar in their midst to launch a New Year's eve strike.
A Central Reserve Police Force jawan and a motor mechanic were arrested on Friday for allegedly working for Maoists and providing them information about anti-Naxal operations in Orissa's Sundargarh district. Jawan Satyaban Bhoi, 38, was working in the CRPF's intelligence wing and was posted in the 19th battalion of the paramilitary force in Bisra. Mechanic Tarun Das, 26, ran a motor vehicle repair garage at the same place.
Ramanna was instrumental in several killings and attacks on security forces, including the 2010 Tadmetla massacre that claimed the lives of 76 troopers. He was also involved in the 2013 Naxal attack in Darbha valley where 29 people, including some senior Congress leaders and policemen, were killed.
The Maoists have already blown up as many as 16 telecom towers in different places of these districts, thereby disrupting the mobile telephone services.
At least 12 Maoists have been killed in the massive anti-Naxal operation launched jointly by security forces of Jharkhand and Orissa since Saturday in Saranda forest, a top police official said on Monday. Jharkhand Director General of Police Neyaz Ahmad said that ten to 12 Maoists have been killed since Saturday.Meanwhile, the Maoists blew up a hostel and panchayat bhawan at Anandpur and triggered three landmine blasts in the Tirilposhi jungle today morning.
A gunbattle began early morning in the Dalbhaga-Arki area of the Saraikela-Kharsawan district at about 7 am when a joint team of the 209th battalion of the CoBRA and Jharkhand Police was out for operation.
Six Central Reserve Police Force personnel, including an inspector, were killed in a landmine blast triggered by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur district on Friday. The incident occurred on a state highway when the CRPF team was proceeding on an anti-Naxalite operation from Konda to Narayanpur at around 11 am, CRPF spokesman Ajay Chaturvedi said.
As the Centre prepares to launch a massive operation against the Maoists, police in the Naxal-hit Andhra Pradesh have a reason to rejoice this year.
At least four Naxals were killed and two CRPF jawans were injured following an encounter with security forces in Taimara Ghati on NH-33 in Ranchi on Friday morning.
Maoists triggered a blast on a stretch of land along the railway track between Midnapore and Godapia Sal stations in West Midnapore district of West Bengal in the wee hours on Monday as the 48-hr bandh called by them began.
Maoists blew up a school building at Manjiladih in Jharkhand's Giridih district on Monday night, the police said.
Campaigning ended on Wednesday evening for 102 Lok Sabha seats across 21 states and Union territories which will go to polls in the first phase on April 19 with top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance and the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) making a last-gasp effort to woo voters.
With heavy security deployment in hyper-sensitive areas of Bastar region ahead of polls, Naxalites are apparently trying to change their course of action and mobilising cadres to town areas to attack "soft targets" outside their core hold, intelligence sources said.
The surrendered Naxal said such arguments and counter-arguments led to internal dispute. "I felt suffocated and a sense of remorse started setting in."
Seven CRPF men were killed on Wednesday and their weapons looted after Naxals carried out a deadly landmine blast on their vehicle in the jungles of the worst Naxal-affected Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.
"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.
A police constable was on Thursday killed in a pressure bomb blast triggered by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district.
The UP police said the arrests were made following an operation based on a tip off received in the aftermath of the Dantewada massacre, in which 76 security personnel were killed by the Naxals.
A fleet of 10 helicopters will be pressed into service to assist the over 80,000 heavily armed central paramilitary troops as part of an elaborate anti-Naxal offensive across the country."The helicopters will be used both for dropping commandos as reinforcements for the operations and casualty evacuation purposes. They will be at the disposal of the Commander of the operations at Raipur (Chhattisgarh)," said Central Reserve Police Force Director General A S Gill.
The interim budget 2024-25 on Thursday allocated Rs 202868.70 crore to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) with the highest share of funds going to the paramilitary forces like Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF) and Central Industrial Secular Force (CISF), showing priority on internal security and border guarding.
Central Reserve Police Force troopers fighting the left-wing extremists face the challenges of lack of basic food items and water while operating on the ground, a top official of the specialised anti-Naxal unit of the force has said.
In the first operation of its kind in a long time, the Chhattisgarh state police, the Special Task Force and the Central Reserve Police Force launched a combined offensive against Naxalites in the forests spanning two highly Naxal-infested districts to register their first major success in many months.
