Acting Director General of the CRPF, Sudeep Lakhtakia said the ambush has "naturally called for the revision of standard operating procedures" in these areas.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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.
A group of Naxalites killed two persons and damaged an abandoned police camp in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, police said on Saturday.
'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.
As his father takes on the Naxals in Chhattisgarh, Sopan Khosla has scored his own victory.
Polling in 70 constituencies began at 8 am and will conclude at 5 pm, except in nine polling booths in the Maoist-affected Bindranawagarh seat in Gariaband district, where voting began at 7 for security reasons, a poll official 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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Three Naxals were killed on Tuesday in a gun-battle with security forces in Chhattisgarh's worst insurgency-hit Sukma district.
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.
A police constable was on Thursday killed in a pressure bomb blast triggered by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district.
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.
"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.
In both of these Hindi heartland states, the straight contest between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the opposition Congress.
At least four Naxals were killed and two CRPF jawans were injured following an encounter with security forces in Taimara Ghati on NH-33 in Ranchi on Friday morning.
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.
All India Congress Committee General Secretary Digvijay Singh, who appears to have stirred a hornet's nest with his remarks on Naxalism, will have to do some explaining to the party leadership on his newspaper article critical of Home Minister P Chidambaram when he returns from the US next week.
In a strongly-worded article in a leading newspaper, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Wednesday questioned Home Minister P Chidambaram's strategy of treating the Naxal issue as a law and order problem, and called for a rethink of the counter-Maoist strategy. At the same time, Singh, a former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, said, "The buck stops with the chief minister for law and order, and not with the home minister."
'I asked him why were he and other writers being targeted.' 'I saw his point of view, that he and others being writers, their work was popular and well-appreciated by people, especially the youth.' 'This made the State fear them.'
Refusing to bracket Naxals with terrorists, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday ruled out the use of armed forces against them and said that the government is willing to hold talks with them if they abjured violence.
He said Reddy had taken the farmhouse on rent claiming he was a farmer in Andhra Pradesh.
The surrender of top Naxal leader Gudsa Usendi, mastermind of many lethal strikes including the attack on a Congress convoy in Chhattisgarh last year, is certainly a good news for the NIA, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
''And topping it all, parties were playing politics with the issue, least concerned about solving the problem. In fact, they were using them to further their own ends," Marwah claimed.
