Strengthening of counter terror capabilities and the intelligence apparatus, Maoist violence, police reforms and capacity building will be high on the agenda at the chief ministers' conference on internal security, which will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi on Monday. The day-long conference will also deliberate on how India is being affected due to its troubled neighbourhood and its obvious consequences in the country like cross-border terrorism.
Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal told Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that 129 people's representatives and 411 government officials have been killed in Naxal violence between 2004 and 2006.
'The moment they fall foul of the party in power, they become unsafe. Then nobody can guarantee their safety.'
'Just because we haven't reached out, the Naxalites have come and taken over these places. A vacuum cannot exist, someone comes and fills it up and they have done that.' Vijay Raman, Special Director General, Anti Naxal Task Force, in an exclusive interview.
'Many of them are mutilated beyond recognition. Every day an encounter takes place.' 'Bastar has been burnt to ash.'
The Naxalites, 10 of whom are women, turned themselves in before senior officials of the state police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), he added.
A student activist and "independent journalist" from Kerala, Rejaz M. Sheeba Sydeek, has been arrested in Nagpur for allegedly "preparing to wage war against the Government of India." The arrest was made after Sydeek allegedly condemned Operation Sindoor, an Indian Armed Forces operation against terror targets in Pakistan, and criticized operations against Naxalites on his Instagram account. Police found a book about professor G N Saibaba, who faced trial for alleged links with Naxalism, and another about Marxism-Leninism in Sydeek's bag. An English letter seized from his possession appeared to criticize the Indian government for anti-Naxal operations and called for "peace talks between the Indian state and the (banned) CPI (Maoist)".
Naxal violence in Orissa has also put several investment proposals in jeopardy.
Asserting that Maoist violence has no place in democratic India, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Wednesday called upon state governments to work with the Centre in combating this menace.
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".
An immediate grant of Rs 1.5 lakh, monthly stipends during training and even monetary incentives for surrender of weapons are all there for the asking for the banned Naxals under a surrender-cum-rehabilitation policy approved by the Centre on Monday.
Chhattisgarh had little respite from naxal violence in 2008 which claimed over 200 lives and forced about 50,000 people to take shelter in relief camps in the state, where elections were held under unprecedented security in two phases.
'The strategy of frontal organisations of the Maoists is to create unrest and ensure that such unrest leads to a law and order problem.' 'To cover such acts it was necessary to bring in a different definition of unlawful activities which is different from the definition of unlawful activities in the UAPA.'
The government on Monday said it does not have inputs to suggest that the Naxals have established links with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency. "There are no inputs to suggest that the Naxals have established links with the ISI," Minister of State for Home Sriprakash Jaiswal told the Lok Sabha during the Question Hour. He said as many as 217 security personnel and 441 civilians were killed in Naxal violence and action against them till November 30.
The Naxal movement has such a complex history that several books have been written to understand it. Bastar: The Naxal Story seeks to reduce it to bullet points and stereotypes, observes Deepa Gahlot.
Alarmed over unabated Naxal violence, the Centre and the state governments have decided to go after the top leadership of the Communist Party of India - Maoist through intelligence based operations. The decision was taken at a special session of chief ministers of Naxal affected states -- held in Delhi on Wednesday -- in the wake of the May 25 bloodbath in Chhattisgarh's Bastar that left 27 people, including top state Congress leaders, dead.
Newly appointed Central Reserve Police Force Director General Vikram Srivastav described Naxal violence in some parts of the country as more challenging than dealing with terrorist groups.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will convene a crucial Cabinet meeting to discuss the "limited mandate" given to the home ministry to deal with the Naxal violence.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has called a meeting of the chief ministers of seven states affected by Naxal violence on Wednesday, where he is likely highlight the importance of approaching the naxal issue as a national problem. He will also dispel the impression about various voices being heard on Naxal issue.
Warning that serious challenges posed by Naxal violence, cross-border terrorism and religious fundamentalism continue to persist, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said there is need for greater coordination and responses from the states to effectively deal with them.
Barring Chhattisgarh, the situation is under control in other states.
A year after the RG Kar rape-murder Swarupa Dutt/Rediff look at the city where it happened, Kolkata -- its study in dichotomy, at once the self-proclaimed cultural capital of India as also a petri dish for a peculiar rage that breeds crimes against women.
Ruling out the role of the army in fighting Naxal violence in the state, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh Monday admitted "security lapses" that led to the killing of key Congress leaders last weekend.
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.
For the first time in the history of Chhattisgarh, a secret sitting of the Assembly was held on Thursday to discuss freely the increased Naxal violence in the state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday sounded the poll bugle in Bihar, where assembly elections are due this year, calling for 'an NDA government, once again', which would protect the state from the 'evil intentions' of the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress combine.
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.
'Defence, development and democracy is the formula to defeat Naxalism.'
In a fresh offensive against Naxals, security forces killed at least 30 members of the banned CPI-Maoists in two separate encounters in Chhattisgarh's Bastar region on Thursday, officials said.
"I am totally opposed to army being moved against Naxal elements," Defence Minister AK Antony said, adding, "Army cannot be used against everything... the forces are already coming in aid of civil authorities."
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy on Monday warned that the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh will spawn a host of problems, including political instability, Naxal threat, terrorism and communal violence.
The Bharatiya Janata Party said the first anniversary of the United Progressive Alliance-II was marked by "disappointment and betrayal of common man" and that price rise, corruption and surge in Naxal violence were the "achievements" of the government which could complete one year by "misusing" the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Bihar has asked for forces to deal with the growing Naxal problem.
SPOs, who are local youth appointed on a honorarium basis under the provisions of the Police Act, have been a soft target of the Maoists and in the deadliest attack by the ultras in Chhattisgarh this year 39 of them were killed in a single incident.
They were identified as LOS commander Erra and woman cadre Podiyam Bhime, deputy commander of the same squad, Sharma said.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday termed the deadly Maoist attack on his party leaders in Chhattisgarh as an attack on democracy itself.
Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh on Thursday alleged that lack of coordination between the security forces and the state police was leading to rise in Naxal violence in Chhattisgarh, and accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government of having a nexus with ultras for political gains.
Government has received reports that Naxals have undertaken employment in urban areas in order to earn livelihood and evade police action, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.
Out of a total of 10,268 casualties between 2005 and May 2010, 2,372 deaths have been reported in 2009 as against 1,769 in 2008 and 1,737 in 2007, an RTI reply by the Home Ministry said
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