Hours before the deadline set by Naxals for release of their jailed members in exchange of an abducted Orissa Member of Legislative Assembly, a retired army officer on Wednesday approached the Supreme Court to restrain the state government from meeting Maoists' demands. Major General (retired) Gangurdep Bakshi pleaded with the apex court that the state government should be restrained from releasing the Naxals as they had been captured by security forces.
A special squad of the anti-Naxal force recently undertook an operation in the jungles of Narayanpur district during which a UAV was not only able to pick up "real-time imagery" of movement of Naxal cadres but also relayed the conversation among them.
For the first time, anti-Naxal forces are to be deployed in Assam and Uttar Pradesh. According to senior Union home ministry officials, 65 underground members of the CPI (Maoist) were arrested in UP between 2005 and August 15 this year.
As the government continues to weigh options of fighting Naxalism more effectively, the army has offered to send Colonel-rank officers to the Union home ministry on deputation for advise in anti-Maoist operations.
With the defence ministry averse to sparing the army to fight Naxals, the Union home ministry will "fend for themselves" and take a fresh look at its strategy to fight Left-wing extremism including reorienting the available paramilitary forces. This was seen as a fall out of Thursday evening's Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which failed to arrive at a consensus over deployment of Army for fighting Naxals.
Naxals fired at a Central Reserve Police Force camp at Hazaribagh in Jharkhand on Wednesday, injuring a jawan.
The National Investigation Agency, which will probe the shocking Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh, is seeking information about an operative named Gaganna alias Ramesh. The preliminary investigation has revealed that Gaganna was the leader of the operation.
The anti-Naxal operations in Odisha have come to a halt following abduction of two Italian tourists by the Maoists who demanded suspension of offensive against the extremists and release of some of their colleagues besides placing other demands.
Naxalism is a wake-up call for the country, former Union home secretary G K Pillai said in New Delhi, while blaming poor governance for the rise in the problem.
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.
A Naxal faction on Thursday condemned the politics of abduction by Maoists to realise their demands, saying it is a "wrong" policy.
Home Minister P Chidambaram talks about the Naxal menace, Kasab's death sentence, the role of Hindu right-wing organisations in orchestrating blasts and his impending visit to Pakistan.
"Our team on the ground in Dantewada informed the Director General A S Gill that more than 30 Naxals were killed in the encounter that took place on Friday. Though only three bodies were recovered, the rest were dragged back into the forests by the Naxals," CRPF spokesperson Ajay Chaturvedi said in New Delhi.
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.
The incident took place when Chika Mazi was taking a walk outside his house located near a crowded market when some armed ultras fired at him, killing Mazi on the spot, Additional Superintendent of Police BPS Rajbhanu told PTI.
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.
As Maoist menace continued to be unabated, the government is all set to launch the much-awaited full-fledged anti-Naxal operations at three different areas, considered tri-junctions of the worst Naxal-affected states.
The inter-state anti-Naxal operation, along the Jharkhand-West Bengal border, has led to the unearthing of administrative and military units of the Naxals.The operation, which started on Tuesday evening, is a result of several months of planning, and is being lead by over 4,000 central forces including the Special Action Force of the Central Reserve Police Force, besides local police teams of the two states.
Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Tuesday slammed the Centre's failure to contain Maoist violence, saying "It seems the UPA is in power but not in control."The Bharatiya Janata Party leader's comments came in the wake of another Maoist attack in Dantewada on Monday that claimed 50 lives. Using a remote-controlled device, the Left-wing extremists had blown up a bus full of civilians and special police officers in the Naxal-hit district in Chattisgarh.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram urged the captains of Indian Confederation of Industries to invest in naxal-affected areas too for the upliftment of the country.
The prime minister will be visiting an education city, aimed at providing education to under-privileged children living in the area
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.
As Maoists continued to strike at will, the Centre is planning to deploy approximately 15,000 additional paramilitary personnel by April in the Naxal-affected states, to deal with the extremists.These men will be in addition to the 60,000 central security personnel currently deployed to assist the state governments to counter the Naxals.The men, who are now being acquired from forces like CRPF, BSF and ITBP.
On February 16 last year, while serving as the collector of Malkangiri district of Odisha, R Vineel Krishna was abducted by Naxals. He was released nine days later. The IAS officer recounts his experience
Police said that a group of Naxals opened fire on the Howrah-bound Kathgodam Express as it reached Sonepur railway satation.
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.
We strongly condemn the massacre of our patriotic security personnel by the Naxalites. Chhattisgarh is a state that has geared up to fight the menace of Naxalism more than any other state and yet this is a great setback to us to demoralise our operations. I stand here not to apportion the blame but to increase the resolve in the fight against Naxalism.
In a joint operation led by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the police forces of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh recovered the explosives after they began a 'cordon and search' operation last evening in the jungles of Gwaldand, Maldogri and Jharikheri in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district.
Seven members of a polling team and five Central Reserve Police Force personnel were among 14 killed as Naxals struck twice on Saturday in a break of less than an hour, blowing up a bus and an ambulance in Bijapur and Bastar districts of Chhattisgarh.
Mahendra Karma, former Chhattisgarh home minister, slain by Naxals along with 26 others, had Z-plus security with 16 armed guards but was accompanied by only six guards when he was attacked.
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.
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.
The Indian government will launch an offensive against Naxals in various states later this year using Indian Air Force helicopters for movement of troops and satellite images to carry out surgical strikes.
The government has sanctioned fresh funds totalling Rs 2,079 crore to the CRPF and nine Naxal-hit states to combat Maoist challenge with a bulk of the money earmarked for the central force.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil a strong mechanism to counter the serious Naxal problem has been put in place.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has pinned its hopes on the old guard to ensure victory in next month's assembly elections in Chhattisgarh as it gave tickets to 11 sitting MLAs and renominated 13 leaders who lost in the 2018 polls.
Chhattisgarh, at the centre of the Maoist corridor and which has borne the brunt of vicious naxal attacks in recent times, wants an integrated action plan for development to check the Left Wing Extremism in the country.
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.
Seventeen security persons were injured in a powerful landmine blast between Remavand and Gulumpodo villages in Narayanpur district, the police said on Friday.
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