-The Telegraph An “urban-rural divide” seemed to unfold within the government today as rural development minister Jairam Ramesh appeared to take on his urban development counterpart Kamal Nath after the Centre included Chhindwara under the Integrated Action Plan for Maoist-affected areas. According to the home ministry, Chhindwara, Kamal Nath’s constituency in Madhya Pradesh, is not under Maoist influence. Ramesh said some districts not affected by the Maoist menace had been brought under the...

BHOPAL: Even as the second round of talks between interlocutors was set to begin at Raipur, outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) circulated a three page note early on Friday morning, listing in detail their perception about the problems being faced by the tribals and incidents of alleged atrocities by the security forces in tribal Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. A three page note "why we detained the collector", issued by CPI...

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...

Between March 10 and March 17 this year, troopers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the CRPF's special Combat Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA), and the Chhattisgarh Police's Special Task Force entered Abujmard: a 6,000 sq.km expanse of uncharted forest described, by some, as a liberated territory controlled by guerilla forces of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). Security forces have arrested 13 villagers suspected of belonging to the banned...

A bidi-smoking petty contractor who suddenly bought two Boleros and a former newspaper hawker who zipped about Chhattisgarh’s jungles in a Toyota may hold the key to a question bugging the custodians of national security. What the police want to know is: are business houses paying off the Maoists to be able to operate deep inside central India’s mineral-rich guerrilla zones? Chhattisgarh police say that when contractor B.K. Lala’s bank account suddenly...