Latest news with #Naxal
The Print
4 hours ago
- The Print
Security forces defuse 10 IEDs planted by Naxals in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur
Narayanpur, May 31 (PTI) Security forces in Chhattisgarh foiled major Naxal plans for violence by recovering and defusing 10 improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in Narayanpur district, an official said on Saturday. The IEDs were unearthed between the jungles of Gurmaka and Khodpar villages under Kohkameta police station limits on Friday by a joint team of District Reserve Guard (DRG) and Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) along with Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS), the official said.
Indian Express
8 hours ago
- Indian Express
Surrendered Maoist dies by suicide inside open prison in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh
A 30-year-old surrendered Maoist was found dead in a surrender inmates' open jail in Hazaribagh district. Jail authorities confirmed that the inmate — identified as Chhota Shyamlal Dehri, also known by the aliases Santu Dehri and Somlal Dehri — was found unresponsive inside his allotted cottage during the morning headcount Saturday. According to jail officials, Dehri hailed from Dukhan Dehri village in Jharkhand's Dumka district. He had been transferred from Central Jail Dumka and entered the 'surrender prison' on February 9, 2021. He was facing trial in eight pending criminal cases related to Naxal activities. The incident came to light during the morning headcount when Dehri, who was lodged in Ward No. D, did not respond to calls from prison staff. Speaking to The Indian Express, Jail Superintendent Jitendra Kumar said the deceased was an unmarried man from Dumka district and had been living alone in one of the 100 cottages meant for surrendered Naxals. 'Each inmate is given an individual unit that includes a room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. This isn't a typical prison, but a rehabilitation facility for surrendered cadres,' Kumar said. The deceased had been moved to the Dumka prison in February 2021 and was an undertrial in connection with eight different cases. He had reportedly surrendered on April 22, 2020, after initially joining the banned outfit due to a land dispute in his village. 'He joined the Naxal outfit hoping they would help resolve his land issue, but when that didn't happen, he became disillusioned and surrendered,' Kumar added. Authorities found the body after security personnel conducting morning rounds received no response when they knocked on his door. 'The cottages are locked from the outside at night. In this case, he had also locked the inner door, which is against protocol. When guards received no response, they forcibly opened the door and found him hanging from the ceiling hook. He tied a wire to the hook and then used a rope,' Kumar said. The room was not under CCTV surveillance, as the surrender prison does not follow the standard high-security setup of regular prisons. Officials said the inmate had shown no signs of mental illness during his stay. 'He wasn't under any psychiatric care. Those with such issues are referred to Ranchi for treatment,' Kumar said. However, another official admitted there is a lack of regular psychological counselling at the facility. 'We don't have a trained counsellor in this jail, and honestly, most prisons across the country don't. There's a serious staff crunch. Sometimes NGOs conduct small sessions, but nothing is regular or institutionalised,' he said. Asked about possible stress or depression, Kumar said while Dehri was not undergoing psychiatric care, one fellow inmate shared that the deceased occasionally spoke of stress over unresolved land disputes. According to official information, no suicide incidents have been reported in the Hazaribagh Open Jail in recent years. However, in the last two to three months, four such cases have occurred in other jails across the state; two in Hatuwadh, one in Dumka, and one in Central Jail Hazaribagh. The incident has been reported to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), and police at Lohsinghana station have been informed to register an Unnatural Death (UD) case. The family, including his parents and brother, has also been informed. Further investigation is underway. Shubham Tigga hails from Chhattisgarh and studied journalism at the Asian College of Journalism. He previously reported in Chhattisgarh on Indigenous issues and is deeply interested in covering socio-political, human rights, and environmental issues in mainland and NE India. Presently based in Pune, he reports on civil aviation, other transport sectors, urban mobility, the gig economy, commercial matters, and workers' unions. You can reach out to him on LinkedIn ... Read More
Scoop
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Defend The Adivasis Of Central India. Ceasefire And Peace Talks Now
It is not just Palestine that is under siege. Central India is also embroiled in an all-out-war that is killing the Indigenous Adivasi people. Like Israel, the Indian state has also committed countless harrowing violations to the international humanitarian law – but toward its own people, in order to seize the mineral-rich land of the region for its neoliberal agenda. To open Central India to foreign investments and corporate plunder, the government launched its military campaign against Naxals (Maoist rebels). However, this campaign has mainly targeted the civilian Adivasi communities and their advocates. Recently, the government intensified its attacks through routine harassment, extrajudicial killings, mass sexual violence, illegal arrests and detention in security camps, and aerial bombings, especially in the region of Bastar, Chhattisgarh and the Karegatta Hills, Telangana. Many of the state-perpetrated killings are covered up as deaths from fake encounters. In Bastar alone, over 400 of these killings were reported since January 2024, which included elderly and children casualties. This year, hundreds of cases of rape, unlawful arrests of activists, and the burning of over 300 villages in Bastar have been documented. All this brutal violence is justified under the pretense of counter-insurgency, which has reinforced the land grabbing and forcible displacement of communities already legitimized by deceptive policies such as the Scheduled Tribes and Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act (FRA). The constitutional rights granted to Adivasis for self-governance are blatantly ignored and violated to favor exploitation of natural resources through the rapid expansion of infrastructure for intensive extractive industries, which in turn threaten the lives and livelihoods of the Adivasis, attack their food systems, and destroy the environment. The People's Coalition on Food Sovereignty expresses its grave concern over the situation, particularly the employment of state militarization that is pushing the Adivasi population into starvation and destitution. Moreover, we strongly condemn the violations to human rights and the international humanitarian law committed by the Indian state and its forces in the name of counter-insurgency to acquire Adivasi lands and plunder their communities' resources. We call out the India government for its war crimes, including the extrajudicial killings of Naxal combatants – even the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) – that have been seeking deescalation through their unilateral ceasefire declaration. We urge to heed the appeals for ceasefire and peace talks and immediately suspend the national and regional counter-insurgency programs behind Central India's militarization that are killing the Adivasis (such as Operation Kagar in Bastar and Operation Black Forest in Karegatta Hills). The root causes of armed conflict will never be addressed by the further escalation of wars and military offensives that only contribute to people's hunger and impoverishment. There would never be a need for the people to take up arms in the first place if their socio-economic demands and civil liberties – especially concerning the right to food and land – are met and pro-people development is prioritized over profit.
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Business Standard
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Business Standard
Security forces engage in encounter with Naxalites in J'khand's Jhariakela
The security forces engaged in an encounter with members of banned Naxalite organisation CPI (Maoist) at around 12 PM on May 30. The encounter occurred in the hilly/forest areas of Vangram Tirilposi under Jhariakela Police Station in Jharkhand, a press release said. During the encounter, seeing the security forces gaining an upper hand, the Naxalites fled from the incident spot by taking advantage of the forests and mountains. Explosives and other daily-use items were recovered and seized by the security forces during the search operation. Recently, the Indian forces conducted a major anti-Naxal operation in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur, eliminating 27 Naxals, which included top commander Basavaraju. Basavaraju, the general secretary of CPI (Maoist), has been involved in Naxalite activities for the past 40-45 years and has been involved in more than 200 Naxalite activities. Meanwhile, Naxal activity in Bastar and many regions of India has "reduced significantly" as a result of carrying out operations against the banned and "illegal" CPI-M outfit, a police official said on Wednesday. Inspector General (IG) of police, Bastar, P Sundarraj told ANI, "As a result of carrying out operations against the banned and illegal CPI-M outfit, Naxal activity in Bastar and many regions of India has reduced significantly... 4 districts of Bastar sub-division, Bijapur, Sukma, Narayanpur, and Kanker were identified as the most affected LWE districts... 6 districts of Chhattisgarh, including Bastar, Dhamtari, and Rajnandgaon, will be specially monitored by us for any kind of resurgence". The IG stated that most of the districts in Chhattisgarh are seeing a drop in naxal activity. "In the country, only 18 districts are Naxal-affected and 28 districts are included in the list of districts of maximum thrust... District of maximum thrust means that naxal activity in the district has reduced to a great extent, but strict observations are still required... Most of the districts in Chhattisgarh are seeing a drop in naxal activity...," he said.
India Gazette
15 hours ago
- Politics
- India Gazette
Security forces engage in encounter with Naxalites in Jharkhand's Jhariakela
Jhariakela (Jharkhand) [India], May 31 (ANI): The security forces engaged in an encounter with members of banned Naxalite organisation CPI (Maoist) at around 12 PM on May 30. The encounter occurred in the hilly/forest areas of Vangram Tirilposi under Jhariakela Police Station in Jharkhand, a press release said. During the encounter, seeing the security forces gaining an upper hand, the Naxalites fled from the incident spot by taking advantage of the forests and mountains. Explosives and other daily-use items were recovered and seized by the security forces during the search operation. Recently, the Indian forces conducted a major anti-Naxal operation in Chhattisgarh's Narayanpur, eliminating 27 Naxals, which included top commander Basavaraju. Basavaraju, the general secretary of CPI (Maoist), has been involved in Naxalite activities for the past 40-45 years and has been involved in more than 200 Naxalite activities. Meanwhile, Naxal activity in Bastar and many regions of India has 'reduced significantly' as a result of carrying out operations against the banned and 'illegal' CPI-M outfit, a police official said on Wednesday. Inspector General (IG) of police, Bastar, P Sundarraj told ANI, 'As a result of carrying out operations against the banned and illegal CPI-M outfit, Naxal activity in Bastar and many regions of India has reduced significantly... 4 districts of Bastar sub-division, Bijapur, Sukma, Narayanpur, and Kanker were identified as the most affected LWE districts... 6 districts of Chhattisgarh, including Bastar, Dhamtari, and Rajnandgaon, will be specially monitored by us for any kind of resurgence'. The IG stated that most of the districts in Chhattisgarh are seeing a drop in naxal activity. 'In the country, only 18 districts are Naxal-affected and 28 districts are included in the list of districts of maximum thrust... District of maximum thrust means that naxal activity in the district has reduced to a great extent, but strict observations are still required... Most of the districts in Chhattisgarh are seeing a drop in naxal activity...,' he said. (ANI)
