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.
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.
In her first address to a joint sitting of the two Houses in the new Parliament building in which she touched on varied issues ranging from insurgency to inflation, Murmu said a country can progress at a fast pace only when it defeats the challenges of the past and puts maximum energy into building the future.
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.
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.
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.
Three jawans of the Chhattisgarh police were killed and four others injured on Friday in an ambush set up by Naxals in Bastar district, a senior police official said in Raipur. Bastar Superintendent of Police Ratan Lal Dangi told PTI over the phone that the incident took place near Netanar village on Friday morning. The police team, from Darbha station, was heading for the village after receiving a report that Naxals had vandalised a guest house of the forest department.
The M-17 helicopter was forced to land in south Bastar after it evaded Naxal gunfire but developed hydraulic problems. The IAF crew left behind the operator and the damaged helicopter, raising a question mark on the decision of pilot and co-pilot.
The Indian government said on Thursday that the use of Indian Air Force helicopters in any offensive against Naxals is not part of a strategy in its new plan to deal with rising Maoist violence.
Veteran Bollywood actor Om Puri, who drew flak for his controversial comments against parliamentarians, landed himself in another row by calling Naxals "fighters not terrorists".
Claiming responsibility for the deadly attack on a Congress convoy, Maoists on Tuesday said their main objective was to "punish" senior party leaders including Nand Kumar Patel and Mahendra Karma for their "anti-people" policies.
Contests in 13 seats would attract most attention during the Chhattisgarh assembly elections as they feature prominent leaders of the Congress and BJP.
The CRPF chief on Tuesday said the Maoists are "our own people" so the response against them has to be calibrated and "more humane" keeping this in mind.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad on Wednesday announced the arrest of a key Naxalite cadre who was arrested two days ago from Thane.
J S Verma, general manager of Essar Steel, was on Tuesday arrested for allegedly conspiring in funding Naxal groups in Dantewada area of Chhattisgarh.
Left-wing extremism is a greater challenge to the country than terrorism in terms of the number of lives lost in violence, Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Wednesday. "Terrorism is a major challenge for the security and sovereignty of our country. But left-wing extremism is a greater challenge than terrorism in terms of the number of people killed in violence," Chidambaram said. "Ten times more people are killed in Naxal attacks than in terror strikes," he said.
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 scheme initiated by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs offers 100 per cent financial assistance to the naxal-affected States/Union Territories from the Centre for the purpose of benefiting students belonging to Scheduled Tribes and also primitive tribal groups, sources in the ministry said.
The government has decided to extend the Integrated Action Plan, a specially conceived development programme for worst Naxal-affected districts, for four more years with annual allocation of Rs 1,000 crore.
Terming the Naxal attack in Chhattisgarh as a 'holocaust', Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said the ultras resorted to such acts as they felt threatened with the pace of development work.
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.
This post Office in Bengaluru has been constructed using 3D printing technology.
A security personnel was killed and another got injured in an encounter with Naxalites in the Maoist-hit Sukma district of southern Chhattisgarh Friday.
Maoist-chosen mediators discussed certain key demands of the rebels with hardcore Naxal leader Ganti Prasadam in Bhubaneswar on Monday, as negotiations for the release of the abducted Malkangiri district collector and a junior engineer reached a crucial stage.
A CoBRA company has about 100 personnel each.
In the wake of the recent killing of 15 police personnel by Naxals in Maharashtra, the Union Home Ministry has convened a high-level meeting on Thursday to discuss the internal security in that state as well in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissa.The director generals of police of the four Naxal-hit states have been summoned by the ministry for a thorough review of the prevailing situation there.
The Central Reserve Police Force top boss on Thursday said he has asked his troops deployed in anti-Naxal operations to even go to the extent of "violating" the Standard Operating Procedures if such a diversion in rules is required for operational efficiency and safety of the men.
The Gadchiroli district bordering Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh has been the hot-bed of Naxal activities in Maharashtra with the Maoist violence claiming 418 lives in the past three decades.
The Congress leader, who resigned as the chief minister Sunday night, emerged victorious in the Patan assembly seat, defeating BJP candidate Vijay Baghel by 19,723 votes in the state assembly elections held last month.
In the last four years, Naxal violence has cost more civilian lives than the conflicts in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states, a report released by the Asian Centre for Human Rights has said.The number of civilians killed between 2005 and 2008 in Naxal conflicts is 1,965.In comparison, the number of civilians killed in the strife-torn northeast is 1,666 and in Jammu and Kashmir is 1,195.
Projects include steel plant & railway line; Modi's visit first by a PM to the tribal belt in 30 yrs
Acting Director General of the CRPF, Sudeep Lakhtakia said the ambush has "naturally called for the revision of standard operating procedures" in these areas.
Maoists on Monday unleashed widespread violence claiming eight lives in West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa during their 24-hour Bharat bandh against United States President Barack Obama's India visit. While four persons fell to the bullets of Naxals in West Bengal, two each were gunned down in Bihar and Orissa.
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.
Acting on a tip-off, commandos of anti-Naxal unit C-60 combed Sindesur forest area in Dhanora taluka and spotted a group of ultras who fired at them, triggering a gun battle at around 11 am
Ministry seeks more active role by state governments to address issues.
Suspected Naxals fired at an Indian Air Force helicopter and injured a security man in the Maoist hotbed of Dantewada in Chhattisgarh. According to preliminary reports, the helicopter was on a mission to airlift a few Central Reserve Police Force troopers when it was fired upon.
A Central Reserve Police Force official was injured on Monday when Naxals attacked a camp of paramilitary forces in insurgency-hit Sukma district in southern Chhattisgarh.
Tourist destinations have also come under the scanner of Naxalites as rebels detonated a powerful blast at one of the enchanting sites near Jagdalpur in Chhattisgarh on Monday morning in a move aimed to unleash a reign of terror among visitors.
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