-The Hindustan Times   Helicopters were kept on standby for casualty evacuation; targets were chosen with care after studying satellite images and the troops were warned — the encounters would be fierce and the naxals could be in the hundreds, even thousands. After weeks of planning, security forces armed with automatic rifles, satellite phones and Swedish Carl Gustav rocket launchers made their very first foray into the dense Abujhmad jungle, straddling the...

-The Times of India NAGPUR: The recent attacks on the security forces interspersed with a spate of civilian killings in eastern Vidarbha's most dreaded naxal bastion Gadchiroli has set a trail of fear in the tribal district. With the rebels' annual 'Tactical counter offensive campaign' (TCOC) already underway in their strongholds nationwide, the naxal violence is expected to escalate in the affected hinterlands. Security sources stated that naxals generally conduct TCOC in...

Maoists wreaked their vengeance on tribals in a village in Chhattisgarh’s undivided Dantewada district, bordering Andhra Pradesh, by allegedly molesting women, assaulting elders, and torching houses for not handing over to them a local Salwa Judum (disbanded anti- naxal vigilante force) leader, officials said on Wednesday. The brutality by the armed rebels, who numbered around 60-70, on the Dorla tribe population of Maraiguda in the newly created Sukma district (carved out...

—PTI Hours before the deadline set by naxals for releasing their jailed members in exchange for an abducted MLA, a retired Army officer approached the Supreme Court on Wednesday to restrain the Odisha government from meeting the Maoists' demands. Major-General (retd.) Gangurdep Bakshi pleaded that the government be restrained from releasing the naxals as they had been captured by security forces while putting their lives at stake. Maj.-Gen. Bakshi, an expert in counter-terrorism...

Natives of Niyamgiri feel that the police is acting as an agent of the Vedanta group, playing dirty tricks to help the company go ahead with its plans to mine bauxite from the sacred hills ONE OF the world’s most controversial mines is back in the spotlight after hundreds protested against renewed efforts to mine Odisha’s Niyamgiri Hills. Dongria Kondh and Niyamgiri supporters held their own ‘public hearing’ in Odisha...