A revised strategy to combat Maoist insurgents is being planned with the focus on precise intelligence, specialised training, modern equipment and faster mobility for the anti-Naxal forces.
A police jawan was killed in a gun-battle with Maoists in insurgency-hit Chhattisgarh's Kondagaon district today, the police said. "The encounter took place near a river in restive Hekli forests under Mardapal police station limits when security personnel were returning after a search operation in the evening," Kondagaon Additional Superintendent of Police Surjit Atri told PTI.
"The villagers came first, and then the Naxalites, dressed in black. They were some 300 Naxalites, all wearing black," a jawan of the Central Reserve Police Force said.
In his first visit to BSF HQ after taking over as home minister, Shah was given a presentation on BSF deployment along Pak, Bangladesh borders.
The decision to attach officers in the rank of assistant commandants, deputy commandants and commandants with the army for better training and understanding of counter-insurgency operations was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) in the aftermath of the deadly Dantewada Naxal ambush where 76 CRPF personnel were killed.
Gearing up for a major offensive against Naxals, the government is contemplating to involve the Army to deal with the Left-wing extremism.
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.
CoBRA commando Rakeshwar Singh Manhas went missing after the April 3 ambush in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region.
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.
Police seized condoms, contraceptive pills and pregnancy test kits from a Maoist hideout following an exchange of fire with red rebels on Odisha-Chhattisgarh border, a senior officer said in Nabarangapur on Thursday.
The five young police officers -- Avinash Mohanty of Bijapur, Amresh Kumar Mishra of Dantewada, Rahul Bhagat of Narayanpur, Ajay Yadav of Kanker and Sundarraj P of Bastar -- have engaged more local people into the operations and are reaping rich dividends in steeming the naxal tide.
The United Liberation Front of Asom, led by self styled commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah, has reportedly established close operational links with Naxal elements to carry out destructive activities in different parts of the country. Highly placed sources told this correspondent that apart from the Inter-Services Intelligence wing of Pakistan, some Chinese elements are also guiding these anti-Indian insurgent outfits in a bid to intensify their 'destabilise India' campaign.
A day after polling in Chattisgarh's Bastar Lok Sabha seat, two security personnel were on Friday injured in a pressure bomb blast carried out by Naxals in the insurgency-hit Bijapur district of the region, police said.
The encounter took place under Kalasa police station when an ANF team began combing operations following a tip off late Tuesday night. During the operation a gang of four Naxalites, including a woman, started firing at the ANF team, A M Prasad, IGP (Western Range) told PTI from Kalasa over phone.
The forces, especially those involved in counter insurgency and anti-Naxal operations besides those guarding the border heaved a sigh of relief after the Centre recently accepted their demand of restoring the old pension scheme with retrospective effect. Five years ago, the government had framed rules which did not entitle jawans recruited in central police forces after 2004, to pension benefits.
"My government is always prepared for dialogue with the Naxals, but first they should give up arms and the path of violence," Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told reporters after reviewing the ongoing combing operation against Maoists at a high-level meeting here.
The naxalites claimed that the Rani Bodli incident was an answer to the Salwa Judum (peace campaign) and anti-naxal operation in Bastar region.
At least three security personnel were killed and six others injured, four of them critically, in a fierce encounter with Maoists in Orissa's Gajapati district early on Wednesday, the police said.
Rajya Sabha member of Parliament and senior advocate, Kapil Sibal, has expressed his displeasure over some of the recent judgments passed by the Supreme Court saying he has 'no hope left' in the institution.
The mineral-rich state has entered into a large number of agreements for mega projects with investors and so far there has been no exodus of industrial houses.
With the commencement of the new year, the Centre has decided to strike the Naxals. The much-touted anti-Naxalite offensive of the Central para military forces in coordination with the state governments, which should have begun by now, has been quietly put off to January.
In a major Naxal attack, 12 Central Reserve Police Force personnel were on Tuesday killed and 28 others injured when the ultras triggered a landmine blast in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra.
Bhatnagar is expected to take charge of the CRPF later this week as he is on an official assignment in Indonesia in the capacity of NCB DG.
Maoist-chosen mediators assured Orissa government the hostage duo would not be harmed and that rebels would refrain from violence as long as negotiations are underway after they opened talks for release of 30-year-old IAS officer and Malkangiri district Collector R V Krishna and junior engineer Pabitra Majhi.
"The face-off between a small action team of ultras and a joint team of security forces took place about 2 kms deep inside the forests from the spot where the explosion took place at around 8 am," Sukma Superintendent of Police Indira Kalyan Elesela told PTI over phone.
The explosive, however, remained "undetected" during the demining exercise conducted a day before the attack on Wednesday, they said.
The ultra groups are desperate ever since the Narendra Modi-led government had decided to demonetise Rs 500 and 1000 currency notes from the midnight of November 8 last, which had an adverse impact on the activities of naxal and extremists group in the state, Additional Director General, Jharkhand, R K Mallick said.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Tuesday told the Delhi high court that withdrawal of Rs 2000 notes is not demonetisation but a statutory exercise, and the decision to enable their exchange was taken for operational convenience.
The STFs will be on the lines of the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka STF that killed forest brigand Veerappan.
An all-out offensive against Naxals, with over 60,000 central security personnel in action.Security personnel have re-drawn their strategies keeping in mind that they would be entering areas and forests which security personnel have not ventured into so far. The Naxals too are re-stratagising and are reportedly improving their defence systems. Naxals are laying pressure bombs in the jungles, which are similar to landmines, besides constructing new pits with wooden spikes.
The letters were reportedly recovered after the anti-Naxal operations in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli, in which 39 Maoists were killed, in April.
The government is all set to launch its much-awaited coordinated massive offensive against Naxals next month, a top home ministry official said on Monday.
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.
India has strongly protested the inclusion of the Naxal issue under the realm of 'armed conflict' in a United Nations report, saying the violence being perpetrated by these groups does not make it a zone of armed conflict, as defined by international law.
The face-off between a compact team of District Reserve Group and ultras took place in the forested hills of Metapal village, Dantewada Superintendent of Police Kamlochan Kashyap told PTI.
The jawans inadvertently stepped over a pressure IED, triggering the blast that left SI B S Bist and head constable Sudhakar injured.
Nearly 600 Central Reserve Police Force personnel arrived in the district on Thursday as reinforcements for the existing security personnel.
Naxalites on Monday carried out multiple improvised explosive device blasts in Jharkhand's Giridih district, injuring 12 security personnel.
The CRPF has lost 108 personnel to COVID-19, the highest among the central forces that function under the command of the Union home ministry, according to data.
