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 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 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.
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.
Projects include steel plant & railway line; Modi's visit first by a PM to the tribal belt in 30 yrs
Ministry seeks more active role by state governments to address issues.
A CoBRA company has about 100 personnel each.
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
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.
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.
While there is every sign of grinding poverty in the villages, the towns of Bastar and Jagdalpur have big and bustling markets.
For the first time, a presiding officer was declaring in public what decision he will be taking, the Rajya Sabha member said.
Acting Director General of the CRPF, Sudeep Lakhtakia said the ambush has "naturally called for the revision of standard operating procedures" in these areas.
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.
The security forces nabbed two ultras after intensifying combing operation on the sixth day today, flushing out the Naxals hiding in various jungles in the borders of Kandhmal and Ganjam, after the mayhem. Sources said that Mahipur outpost constable Chintamani Sahu, who was admitted along with seven others at the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, succumbed to the injuries on Wednesday night.
The killing of a policeman taken hostage by Maoists will erode the credibility of the Naxals, but the handling of the situation by the Nitish Kumar government is also questionable, feels social activist Medha Patkar.
The Naxals attempted to blow up a vehicle transporting a police team in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, officials said. The extremists triggered a landmine blast when the van was passing by near Parleda village, Bijapur Superintendent of Police Avinash Mohanty told PTI by phone.
A group of Naxalites killed two persons and damaged an abandoned police camp in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, police said on Saturday.
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.
'No one is saying that the police can become the solution, the police have to become the first respondent to create a situation where other people can enter,' says Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwa Ranjan.
Union Home Minister, P Chidambaram said on Friday that the progress of the on-going operation against the Maoists in the Naxal-hit states was "satisfactory"."The joint operation against the Naxalites is few weeks old and the progress has been satisfactory," Chidambaram told media-persons after a high-level meeting convened in Raipur to review the operation.
The government has alerted Naxal-affected states against possible Maoist attacks on railway networks, in the wake of Left-wing extremists targeting a Rajdhani Express train in Bihar, by blasting the rail tracks. The home ministry has issued the alert to West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh, apprehending attacks by Naxals on trains and railway infrastructure, as any sabotage on the network can result in large-scale damages, official sources said.
Naxals are trying to spread their tentacles across southern states, according to Andhra Pradesh police chief R R Girish Kumar."Naxals are trying to spread all over (the country). We have evidence that these people (Maoists) are trying to set up their cells even in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. We would like to sensitise the police of neighbouring states on the lurking danger so that they can have a proper action plan in place," DGP R R Girish Kumar said.
Prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh has reportedly convened a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security at 5 pm on Tuesday to discuss the growing threat of the Naxal terror in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Jharkhand.
As his father takes on the Naxals in Chhattisgarh, Sopan Khosla has scored his own victory.
Six Central Reserve Police Force personnel and 13 Maoists were killed in two separate encounters in Bijapur district, about 565 km from Chhattisgarh, a senior police official said on Monday.
Available information indicates that the CRPF's operation in Chattisgarh last week in which 19 alleged Maoists were killed, had taken place on half-baked information, reports Vicky Nanjappa
As many as 71 elected representatives in Gadhiroli, an East Maharashtra district have resigned from their posts till now, apparently due to Naxal threat. Talking to the media, Chief Executive Officer of the Gadchiroli Zilla Parishad.
The local intelligence wing had suggested not to carry out large anti-Naxal operations in south Bastar forests, where the ultras recently killed 14 Central Reserve Police Force personnel, citing geographical complications and strong Maoist 'Jantana Sarkar' network, a senior police official said.
Defence Minister A K Antony said on Sunday that the government viewed the violence unleashed by Maoists in some parts of the country very seriously.
On an average, Naxals kill at least three persons in as many as six attacks every day. In the first six months of 2010, Maoists carried out a total of 1,103 attacks, in which 534 people were killed. This was disclosed by Home Minister P Chidambaram while speaking at a meeting of chief ministers to discuss the situation arising out of Maoist violence in the country. According to the data presented by the home minister, the extremists have killed 325 civilians.
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.
After a sustained operation along the Jharkhand-West Bengal border, the anti-Naxal forces will soon launch an offensive along the crucial borderline of Orissa and Chhattisgarh which is considered a Maoist stronghold.
A first-of-its kind 'battle field hospital' is being set up deep inside the Naxal hotbed of Dantewada in Chhattisgarh which will provide immediate first aid to injured Central Reserve Police Force and other security forces officials undertaking anti-Maoist operations.
Three Naxals were killed on Tuesday in a gun-battle with security forces in Chhattisgarh's worst insurgency-hit Sukma district.
"Ghandy was preaching Naxalism, Marxism and Leninism. He was central committee member of Politbureau of CPI-ML, besides looking after Committee of Mass Organisation and international department of Central Publishing Bureau and being in charge of its South Western Regional Bureau," the Delhi Police told Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Friday that the government had drawn up an integrated plan to tackle the Naxal problem in consultation with the states and was initiating firm action against the Maoists.
A police constable was on Thursday killed in a pressure bomb blast triggered by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district.
Former Border Security Force director general E N Rammohan, appointed to inquire into the circumstances leading to the massacre of 76 security personnel by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, has begun his probe.
