Eleven Naxalites, including five senior operatives with a combined bounty of Rs 68 lakh, have surrendered to police and CRPF forces in Gadchiroli district, Maharashtra, marking a significant blow to Left Wing Extremism in the region.
Two CoBRA battalion personnel were seriously injured in an IED blast triggered by Maoists during an anti-Naxal operation in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum district.
The government informed Lok Sabha that security forces have neutralised 29 top Naxal leaders since 2019, with a significant reduction in affected districts.
The Union Budget 2025-26 had allocated Rs 2,33,210.68 crore (BE) to the ministry helmed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah announces the surrender of 258 Maoists in Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, reiterating the government's commitment to eradicating Naxalism by March 2026.
Senior Naxalite Mallojula Venugopal Rao, also known as Bhupathi, surrendered to police in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district along with 60 other cadres. Bhupathi, a key strategist in the banned organization, carried a significant bounty.
The Maharashtra legislature has passed a special bill, the Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill, 2024, to curb activities of Left-wing extremist organizations, introducing strict measures and penalties for individuals and organizations involved in unlawful activities.
'The law under the guise of security represents a grave and unnecessary expansion of State power at the cost of fundamental rights,' asserts Aakar Patel.
The Maharashtra legislative assembly passed the 'Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill' aimed at preventing unlawful activities of Left Wing Extremist organizations, focusing on urban Naxalism and passive militancy.
The Union Budget 2025-26 has allocated Rs 3,481.27 crore for security-related expenditure (SRE) and the Special Infrastructure Scheme for Left Wing Extremist (LWE) areas. The BJP-led Centre has set a target of March 2026 to end the Maoists menace in the country. The allocation is considered significant in the wake of Union Home Minister Amit Shah's repeated statements that the Narendra Modi government has resolved to end Naxalism in the country by March 2026. This year, till January-end, 40 Naxalites have been killed in separate gunfights in the worst Naxal-hit state of Chhattisgarh. Last year, 219 Naxalites were neutralized by security forces in separate encounters in Chhattisgarh. Six Maoists were killed in Odisha in 2024, while eight were arrested and 24 had surrendered. According to the home ministry's data, 48 Naxals have so far been killed this year in all Naxal-affected states, 290 were killed in 2024 and 50 in 2023. The government has also established 290 camps of security forces in Naxal-affected areas since 2019 and 88 more are proposed to be set up in 2025.
Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma has reiterated the state government's willingness to engage in unconditional peace talks with Naxalites, following a statement by the Maoist group outlining preconditions for a ceasefire. Sharma, who holds the home portfolio, stated that the government has already made its stance on unconditional talks clear and has implemented a surrender and rehabilitation policy for Naxal cadres. He criticized the Maoists' demands as unreasonable and emphasized the importance of ending violence and joining the national mainstream. Sharma also called on the Naxalites to send a representative if they are serious about peace talks, but ruled out the formation of a separate committee for negotiations. The Maoist statement, released in Telugu, highlighted the group's concerns regarding intensified counter-insurgency operations and alleged human rights violations. They appealed for a positive atmosphere for peace talks, calling for a halt to anti-Naxal operations and the establishment of new security camps.
Eight District Reserve Guards (DRG) jawans and a civilian driver were killed in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district when Naxals detonated an improvised explosive device targeting their vehicle. The incident occurred near Ambeli village while the security personnel were returning from an anti-Naxalite operation. This is the biggest Naxal attack on security forces in the region in the past two years.
It said a "sudden rise" in terrorist-financing investigations was seen in 2023 and this was attributed to events arising out of incidents in Manipur that led to such probes in more than 50 cases.
Besides disclosing in their affidavits, candidates have to prominently declare criminal cases they are facing, if any, thrice in newspapers in print as well on television, he said, adding that political parties too have to publish within three days of nomination why a candidate with criminal background was selected. "You (political parties) have to tell the public whether you did not get any (other) candidate and why was it necessary to select them (those with criminal background)," he said.
The interim budget 2024-25 on Thursday allocated Rs 202868.70 crore to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) with the highest share of funds going to the paramilitary forces like Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF) and Central Industrial Secular Force (CISF), showing priority on internal security and border guarding.
Rao's history includes arrests in 2000 by Sahadha police of Nandurbar district and subsequent releases, as well as an underground stint in 2002, leading to his arrest by Malkanoor PS police of Karnataka in 2005.
Voting for 10 constituencies was held from 7 am to 3 pm in 10 seats and from 8 am to 5 pm in the rest 10 segments under a thick security blanket of police and paramilitary personnel in the Naxalite-hit Bastar division.
The agency had received Rs 946.51 crore to manage its affairs in the Budget Estimates for 2023-24, which was later increased to Rs 968.86 crore in the Revised Estimates.
Assam government on Friday accused Left-wing extremists of engineering protests against big dams in the state and warned of appropriate action to tackle the design.
Maoists have killed Abhay Kumar Yadav, one of the four kidnapped Bihar policemen, following a decision taken by the 'people's court' after the deadline given by the Left-wing extremists to the state government expired.Avinash, a self-proclaimed Maoist spokesman, has confirmed that Maoists killed Yadav, a sub-inspector in the state police. "We killed him and warned the state government to release our comrades till 10 am on Friday morning," he said.
Terming the recent Maoist strike on a paramilitary camp in West Bengal as a 'cowardly' act, President Pratibha Patil on Monday made it clear that such 'senseless violence' would strengthen the government's resolve to tackle it with 'added vigour.'
"I am sure that the attempts to stall development and throttle democracy at gunpoint will not be successful ever," the home minister said at the meeting, being held two weeks after 25 paramilitary personnel were killed by a band of Maoists in Chhattisgarh.
In the deadliest attack on security forces, Maoists trapped and gunned down 76 security personnel during Operation Green Hunt, an offensive against the Left-wing extremists, on Tuesday morning in the thick forests of Mukrana in Dantewada district of Chattisgarh.
In the deadliest attack on security forces, Maoists trapped and gunned down 76 security personnel during Operation Green Hunt, an offensive against the Left-wing extremists, on Tuesday morning in the thick forests of Mukrana in Dantewada district of Chattisgarh.
The order comes in the wake of rioters defacing and destroying historical sites, monuments and statues in the country as violence erupted following the brutal custodial death of African-American George Floyd on May 25.
Holding that the revised draft order on NCTC suffers from several "serious flaws" and "arbitrary" provisions, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday asked the Centre to seek Parliament's nod through a wider debate for creating the federal anti-terror agency.
We present verbatim the full speech given by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while addressing the chief minister's conference on internal security at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
Ruling out any dialogue with naxalites, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said that fight against Left wing extremists will be intensified in the coming days.
The audacious strike on top Congress leaders by a Naxal battalion in Chhattisgarh on Saturday has proved that the left-wing extremists have no intention of pausing their armed struggle against the government. An official of the Central Reserve Police Force, the paramilitary force which has been deployed across Naxalism-hit areas, explained the situation on the ground to Rediff.com's Vicky Nanjappa.
With protests intensifying over the demand for Telangana, the Centre on Monday said there was no forward movement on the issue. "There is no forward movement," Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters when asked about the central government's steps for resolution of the sensitive issue.
Recent court decisions have granted 'political prisoner' status to arrested Maoists. Bibhu Prasad Routray examines how that decision will affect India battle to control the Maoist menace.
The power of the left-wing extremist groups is immense and they can, in one sense, if they want to, bring many sectors of the Indian economy to its knees, warns former home secretary GK Pillai
The Centreal Reserve Police Force operations, will have to acquire an intelligence-based strategy to combat Maoists who have organised themselves as a "regular fighting army", Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Wednesday.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday sought urgent consultations between the Centre and the states over issues like NCTC saying any delay in this regard would affect handling of law and order problems.
Bowing to Maoists' demands, for securing the release of a Biju Janata Dal MLA and an Italian from the captivity of ultra-Left activists' captivity, Odisha government on Wednesday said it would facilitate the release of 27 persons, including 8 Naxals, from jails.
Maoists on Monday night named three negotiators to talk to the Odisha government on the Italian hostage crisis even as they set a fresh 24-hour deadline for acceptance of 13 demands including withdrawal of cases against the ultras.
Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi called his counterpart S M Krishna who assured that the Odisha government was taking all steps to secure early release of two Italians kidnapped by Maoists in the state.
The reference to CRPP as a Maoist front organisation came in a written reply in Rajya Sabha by Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Home Affairs.
Abductions by Maoists in India have become quite a routine affair today. Union ministry of home affairs statistics indicate that in 2012 alone 88 persons have been abducted by the left wing extremists, and 11 have been killed.
As a total of 97 police gallantry medals were announced by the government on the eve of the Republic day on Wednesday, more than half (about 52) have gone to those personnel who are either combating Left-wing extremists in various states or have taken on militants and insurgents in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast
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