The kidnapping and subsequent beheading of Jharkhand Police Inspector Francis Enduwar was in retaliation to the offensives mounted by the Jharkhand police and not related to the arrest of senior Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy, the state police said on Tuesday. "We had killed one and arrested another armed dalam member in recent times. The posters we recovered tell us that the killing of Inspector Enduwar was in retaliation to these successes of the Jharkhand police," said a cop.
With the Ishrat Jahan encounter case under fresh scrutiny, an organisation formed to bring out the truth about last year's Batla House encounter in New Delhi has sought to put the spotlight on similar encounters across the country.
Had the pilot of late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's helicopter turned west instead straying 18 kilometres east of the flight path, the chopper might not have crashed or even if it had been encountering problems, could have been crash landed in paddy fields, a senior police official who was part of the team and has a lot of experience serving in the region said.
At 8:30 on Thursday morning, an Indian Air Force helicopter, that had been up in the air for less than one hour, spotted the wreckages of the chopper that went missing a day ago. Within two hours of that, the bodies of all the five people who were on board were found.
Incessant rains, and not Maoists, is the major hurdle facing the security forces who have launched a massive search operation in the Nallamalla forests in Andhra Pradesh, where Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's helicopter went missing this morning, Andhra Pradesh police sources involved in the search operations have said.
Putting a temporary end to the controversy surrounding Virender Sehwag's threat to leave Delhi for Haryana, Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) president Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said that the issues raised by the player are genuine and that they would be acted upon. He, however, did not touch upon the role of the controversial sports committee, which has been accused by the player of most of the wrongdoing.
Coach Bob Houghton feels defending champions India will be the team to beat in the Nehru Cup football tournament which gets underway in Delhi on August 19.
In the first operation of its kind in a long time, the Chhattisgarh state police, the Special Task Force and the Central Reserve Police Force launched a combined offensive against Naxalites in the forests spanning two highly Naxal-infested districts to register their first major success in many months.
The resurfacing of a strong Maoist urban network in the cities of Chhattisgarh has enabled the rebels to gain considerable ground in the past three months, intelligence sources have revealed.
The Maoists suspect that the Centre might launch an assault on their de facto headquarters in Chhattisgarh's forest areas soon after the monsoon and have asked their party and cadres to prepare for the 'new brutal offensive being unleashed by the United Progressive Alliance government'.The Maoists suspect that the Chhattisgarh government will very soon launch a major offensive in the massive Abujmaad forests, which is widely known as their military headquarters.
On July 16, a senior National Mineral Development Corporation official was traveling towards Chhattisgarh's Bailadila hills, where a major iron ore excavation project is going on. Just 20 kms from Jagdalpur, which is the district headquarters of the Bastar plateau, his vehicle was stopped in the middle of the night by some Maoist cadres. He was asked to step out of the car, and after he was thoroughly frisked and his vehicle checked, he was allowed to go.
As many as 455 people (255 civilians and 200 security personnel) have been killed in Naxal violence this year, reveal figures released by the Home Ministry.The Naxal-infested states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand account for 60 per cent of the total deaths in the country in this period.While Chhattisgarh topped the list with 148 deaths, Jharkhand recorded 122 deaths. On the other hand, of the 107 Naxals killed in the same period, 63 were in Chhattisgarh.
The home ministry has unveiled a new Rs 500-crore fully Centre-sponsored scheme which will be implemented by state governments -- for Naxalism-hit states.
'The Maoists will not lose ground because of the State. The way they are responding to people's problems is why they will lose ground' feels CPI-ML leader Dipankar Bhattacharya.
Now that a majority of the community has voted for the Congress, there is a sense of entitlement. And with it comes the expectations.
"The monsoon has reached Ratnagiri over the country's west coast. It will remain there for the week before moving on. This year's monsoon will be 96 per cent normal, with an error margin of 5 per cent," Indian Meteorological Department director B P Yadav said.
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.
Wing Commander Ajey Lele says it does not matter how superior our technology is, but what we do with the intelligence gathered from it.
Though the situation in Tamil Nadu is normal now, there is underlying tension about the possible reactions that will be evoked once Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief Velupillai Prabhakaran's death is confirmed."Though the common man will not turn to violence, there are still fringe elements that are pro-LTTE, which will try to whip up the sentiments of the people. But this can be brought under control if the state is alert," security analyst B Raman said.
After the Hindus, it is the Sikhs who are fleeing the restive Taliban dominated Swat region in Pakistan. At least 200 Sikhs have fled the Swat region and are taking shelter in various gurudwaras in Pakistan.
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