-The Economic Times   The youth wing of the Trinamool Congress will hold a huge rally in the maoist stronghold of Belpahari in West Midnapore district on November 1. This will be the first meeting of a political party in Belpahari. "I am expecting a gathering of about one lakh in our rally in the so-called maoist heartland," Youth Trinamool Congress General Secretary Suvendu Adhikari told ET on Tuesday. He alleged that...

The team of interlocutors appointed by the West Bengal Government to explore the possibility of peace talks with the maoists has submitted a note on the discussions. The note was sent to the Government and the State leadership of the Communist Party of India (maoist). It “summarises the discussions” the interlocutors had with both the sides since it was formed in July. Implicit in the note are the views of the interlocutors...

Police officers of Chhattisgarh would have us believe that people fall inside bathrooms at police stations deliberately to break their own heads or backs and later blame it on custodial torture. They say that’s what happened with Soni Sori, an ashramshala teacher from Jabeli village in the maoist-affected Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh, on October 10. In pain, drifting in and out of consciousness, benumbed by the ‘good cop, bad cop’...

-The Telegraph   Mamata Banerjee today talked of “good” and “bad” maoists, the differentiation said to be part of a strategy to drive a wedge in the rebel camp. “Not all maoists are bad. Some are doing good work. One section, however, does not believe in democracy. They indulge in violence and bloodbath,” she told journalists on the sidelines of the National Development Council meeting at Vigyan Bhavan. Mamata’s differentiation came on the day...

By asking the State-appointed interlocutors here on Tuesday to continue talks with the maoists, to broker peace in the Jangalmahal region, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee may have indicated some flexibility in regard to the seven-day deadline she had given the extremists three days ago to lay down their arms and sit for negotiations. “The dialogue process is on and will be continuing,” Sujato Bhadra, one of the key interlocutors,...