Maoist violence kills six in Chhattisgarh

September 7th, 2009 RAIPUR - Chhattisgarh police Monday gunned down a deputy commander of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) and arrested four of his colleagues, officials said. "We raided a CPI-Maoist hideout in a hilly area under Bhansi locality in Dantewada district and shot dead a deputy commander and arrested four of his colleagues including a minor boy," Superintendent of Police Amresh Mishra told reporters at the district headquarters in Dantewada, some 380 km south of capital Raipur.

August 21st, 2009 RAIPUR - Maoist violence was continuing in certain parts of the country because development was not reaching the troubled areas, particularly in states like Chhattisgarh, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi said here Friday. Accusing Chhattisgarh's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of failing to reach the fruits of development to vast Maoist-hit areas, Gandhi said: "If the government fails to reach people, then problem begins, and this is the case in Chhattisgarh." "See how Andhra Pradesh tackled the Maoist problem, it actually took the central government welfare schemes to problem-hit areas, but in Chhattisgarh the government is not reaching trouble-hit areas," the Congress leader told a press conference here.

August 13th, 2009 RAIPUR - About 15 policemen were suspended in Chhattisgarh after they refused to take part in anti-Maoist operations, the state police chief said here Thursday. "We have made groups of 100 policemen in insurgency-hit areas to launch anti-Maoist operations but 15 constables were reluctant to join the drive and were thus suspended," Director General of Police (DGP) Vishwaranjan told IANS.

August 13th, 2009 RAIPUR - India's worst Maoist insurgency hit state Chhattisgarh has been put on high alert after the Leftist rebels asked people to stay away from Independence Day celebrations Aug 15, the state police chief said here Thursday. "The entire state has been put on high alert in wake of possible Maoist attacks and their call for a boycott of Independence Day," Director General of Police (DGP) Vishwaranjan told IANS.

July 29th, 2009 RAIPUR - Maoist violence in Bastar region has prevented the Chhattisgarh government from carrying out a count of tigers, the state assembly was informed Wednesday. Forest Minister Vikram Usendi told the assembly in a written reply that the count of tigers of the Indravati tiger project had not been undertaken for several years as the area is dominated by Maoists rebels.

July 15th, 2009 RAIPUR - The Chhattisgarh government Wednesday announced relief measures for families hit by Maoist violence including jobs to dependents of policemen killed while battling rebels. "The state government has decided to give jobs, on compassionate basis and within 60 days, to the relatives of the policemen killed by the Naxalites," Chief Minister Raman Singh told reporters after a cabinet meeting here.

May 31st, 2009 RAIPUR - The Chhattisgarh Police Sunday gunned down a Maoist commander in a gun battle in the state's northern forested stretch. Officials said a police search squad had killed Ramesh Barua alias Mukesh in a gun battle in a thickly forested area of Surguja district, 400 km from here.

May 11th, 2009 RAIPUR - At least ten policemen have gone missing after a convoy escorted by 41-member police force was attacked by heavily armed Maoists in Chhattisgarh in the late hours of Sunday. The Maoists first attacked the convoy in Dhamtari, and then they ambushed the convoy near Risgaon village the hilly district.

February 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The number of incidents of Maoist violence has been at more or less the same level for the past few years, the government informed parliament Tuesday. Minister of state for Home Affairs Sriprakash Jaisawal told the house that there were 1,591 incidents of Maoist violence in 2008 against 1,565 in 2007.

February 1st, 2009 RAIPUR - The Chhattisgarh police Monday sealed off the border with Maharashtra, where Maoist radicals ambushed a police search squad in Gadchiroli district Sunday, killing 15 state police personnel, officials said. 'The Sunday attack took place very close to Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district border in Maharashtra and we sealed off the forested border because Maoists may sneak into Chhattisgarh following stepped up drive by the police from the other side of the border,' Pawan Deo, deputy inspector general of police, said here.

January 25th, 2009 RAIPUR - Chhattisgarh Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan took the salute at the Republic Day parade held here Monday and praised the commitment of the security forces battling Maoist insurgency in the state.

January 23rd, 2009 RAIPUR - Five Maoist insurgents were killed in a shootout with a police team in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh late Saturday evening, a top police official said. The shootout took place when the joint team of the Chhattisgarh police and Special Police Officers (SPOs) came face-to-face with a group of Maoists in a thickly forested area under the Bhairamgarh police station of Bijapur district, about 400 km south of here, according to Director General of Police Pawan Deo.

January 7th, 2009 RAIPUR - Four officials, including three special police officers (SPOs), were killed by Maoist rebels in Chhattisgarh, the police said Thursday. The killings were reported early Thursday from two separate areas of the state's violence-hit Bijapur district of southern Bastar region.

December 28th, 2008 RAIPUR - Two Maoist insurgents were shot dead in a gun battle with police while one policeman was killed in a separate gun fight in Chhattisgarh Monday, an official said. Both incidents were reported from Bijapur district of the state's southern mineral-rich forested Bastar region where insurgents had killed three people and injured five in an attack late Sunday.

December 27th, 2008 RAIPUR - Chhattisgarh police, yet to register a maiden case against a smoker even after three months of ban on smoking in public places, say they have more serious jobs in hand in the Maoist insurgency-hit state. Top officers at the police headquarters here said the state police, having a strength of nearly 40,000 personnel for nearly 20.08 million population, were still looking for the first case against a smoker.