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.
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.
Police said that a group of Naxals opened fire on the Howrah-bound Kathgodam Express as it reached Sonepur railway satation.
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
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.
The prime minister will be visiting an education city, aimed at providing education to under-privileged children living in the area
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil a strong mechanism to counter the serious Naxal problem has been put in place.
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.
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.
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.
Seventeen security persons were injured in a powerful landmine blast between Remavand and Gulumpodo villages in Narayanpur district, the police said on Friday.
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".
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.
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.
The agency had received Rs 946.51 crore to manage its affairs in the Budget Estimates for 2023-24, which was later increased to Rs 968.86 crore in the Revised Estimates.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad on Wednesday announced the arrest of a key Naxalite cadre who was arrested two days ago from Thane.
A CoBRA company has about 100 personnel each.
J S Verma, general manager of Essar Steel, was on Tuesday arrested for allegedly conspiring in funding Naxal groups in Dantewada area of Chhattisgarh.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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