A court judgment delivered earlier this year holds important lessons for those engaged in investigating and fighting terrorism. Questioning the methods of terror investigation is always a challenge because it is so easily seen as defending the enemies of the nation. The exercise is monumentally difficult after a benumbing bomb attack — especially if it has been judged to be the work of a home-grown Islamist organisation. The raging anger at this...

-The Hindu   Land taken over for building a medical college hospital Villagers belonging to the Sabar tribe – an aboriginal community — woke up to a rude shock at Andharua village, near here, on Friday. Tribal persons were evicted by baton-wielding police personnel from a piece of land they had fought with the administration for long to preserve as common utility space for the next generation. Armed policemen descended on the 25-acre land...

Nandkumar Naitam is relieved after a month of “torturous” anxiety. “I thought it over again and again,” the 20-year-old tribal youth says. “I thought that if I couldn’t get a rifle, I’d pick up my traditional weapon, the bow-and-arrow.” It was a desperation that Nandu, as he is fondly called, shared with his 5,000-odd fellow special police officers (SPOs), who till a month ago formed the Chhattisgarh government’s frontline against the Maoists...

Jharkhand is viewing with serious concern Mamata Banerjee government’s peace initiatives with Maoists in neighbouring Bengal, the apprehensions centred around a prevalent lull in anti-rebel operations that could lead to repercussions in a state that the Union home minister described as the epicentre of left wing extremism. State DGP G.S. Rath believes the developments in Bengal, where peace moves have meant that anti-rebel operations have been reduced to routine patrolling by...

-The Indian Express   Chief Minister Raman Singh has said the Cabinet has approved the “Chhattisgarh Auxiliary Armed police Force Ordinance 2011”, and added that the report has been sent to the governor for his assent. Stating that the new force is being raised keeping in mind Special Police Officers (SPOs), local tribals, who are engaged in anti-Maoist operations, Singh said over 5,000 SPOs will be inducted into the unit, which will...