Incidents involving Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) 2008

Andhra Pradesh

January 2: Three Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres, identified as ‘district committee member Gunaganti Yadaiah alias Shyam (carrying head money of INR 300000), Nakka Raju alias Shekar and Boddu Kishtamma alias Shoba, both dalam (squad) members carrying head money of INR 20000 each, surrendered along with their weapons before the Superintendent of Police, Charu Sinha, at Mahabubnagar district headquarters. All the three extremists were accused of killing the Amangal mandal (administrative division) parishad president, R. Panthu Naik, in the district. Shyam was also reportedly involved in over 33 crimes, including the killing of Maktal Member of Legislative Assembly Chittem Narsi Reddy.

January 4: A squad member of the CPI-Maoist, identified as D. Srinu alias Vikram, who planned to extort INR One milion from businessmen in the Rangareddy district was arrested from Vanasthalipuram locality in the capital city of Hyderabad. Cyberabad Police Commissioner, S. Prabhakar Reddy, told that Srinu had earlier collected INR 10,000 from the businessman in Vanasthalipuram in December 2007. He approached the same businessman again with a fresh demand for INR One million but was caught by the police. The police also recovered an AK-47 rifle with 50 bullets from his possession.

January 8: The CPI-Maoist cadres killed D. Ramaswamy, a leader of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) party, at Baavurugonda village in the Koththaguda mandal of Warangal district. The group of Maoists was led by Yellandu-Koththagudem area committee secretary Marri Ravi alias Sudhakar. The insurgents also left a letter in the name of Sudhakar alleging that Ramaswamy was responsible for the encounters in the Koththaguda agency area.

January 9: The Devarakonda police unearthed a dump reportedly planted by the CPI-Maoist near a remote Kambalapally village in the Nalgonda district and recovered two plastic drums. "There are about 50 books in one of the drums," said the Deputy Superintendent of Police M. Srinivas. Apart from 125 electric detonators, a grenade launcher, about twenty four .22 bullets, a plastic cover, eight pairs of shoes, revolutionary literature was also recovered in the dump.

January 10: In a joint statement, the CPI-Maoist ‘North Telangana Special Zone Committee’ secretary, Chandranna, and the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) Janashakthi group, "Godavari Valley Area Committee" secretary, Bharat, criticized the Congress Party for its decision to constitute a second States’ Reorganisation Commission (SRC). They accused the Congress Party, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) of working for the interests of the rich people from Andhra Pradesh.

January 11: Suspected cadres of the CPI-Maoist set ablaze a road construction machinery between Vanpalli and Garjanapalli villages of Yellareddypet mandal in the Karimnagar district.

Ramagundam police arrested two Maoist cadres and recovered a tapancha (country made fire arm) from their possession in the Karimnagar district.

January 13: A CPI-Maoist couple, identified as Thalandi Motiram alias Akash, a former deputy commander of Mangi dalam, and his wife Shaikh Haseena alias Saroja, also a former member of the same dalam, surrendered to the Adilabad district police. The Maoist couple, carrying a reward of INR 10000, were involved in nine and three cases respectively and citied health reasons and disillusionment with party ideology for surrendering. Motiram had joined the extremist outfit on October 2001 as Mangi dalam member and was a member of the North Telangana Special Zone Committee, till 2004. Later he worked as commander of a special guerrilla squad till 2006. Haseena joined the Mangi dalam on 2005. At present they were working in Dandakaranya area in Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh State since December 2006.

A deputy commander of Galikonda platoon of the CPI-Maoist, identified as P. Chinnabbai alias Ramakrishna, surrendered before the East Godavari Superintendent of Police B. Sreenivasulu at Kakinada. Ramakrishna, a native of Cheedigunta village of G.K. Veedhi mandal in the Visakhapatnam district, had joined the outfit in 2002 as a courier.

January 14: Five CPI-Maoist cadres of the Galikonda dalam, including three women, surrendered before the Superintendent of Police Akun Sabharwal in Visakhapatnam. The three were identified as G. Mohan Rao alias Jambri, a commander in the Galikonda Platoon and his wife Korra Kavitha alias Kamala, an area committee member, Korra Lakshmi, Korra Bonju Babu, and Vanthala Balamma, a militia member.

January 15: A Maoist couple was killed in an exchange of fire with the police in a forest area in the Govindraopet sub-division of Warangal district. The slain extremists were identified as Satayya alias Suresh Anna, Secretary of Warangal, Karimnagar and Khammam district units of the CPI-ML Praja Pratighatna group, and his wife Rani, who was a commander of the party's armed squad. The police recovered a spring loading rifle, a pistol and two kit bags from them.

January 17: Two CPI-Maoist cadres were killed in an encounter with the police in Buruguvada village of Vararamachandrapuram sub-division in Khammam district. The deceased extremists were identified as Aithu alias Bhagat, 25, and Madakam Kosa, 26. They were suspected to be the commander and deputy commander, respectively, of the Bhadrachalam local organisational squad.

An activist of the ruling Congress party, Payam Lakhmaiah, was stabbed to death by CPI-Maoist cadres in the Sampathnagar village of Khammam district. The police said that a six-member action team of the CPI-Maoist from Kothaguda (Warangal district) struck at his house at 10 p.m. and killed him in the presence of his family members. Extremists of the Sudhakar dalam, which is said to have carried out the killing also left behind a letter branding him a police informer.

January 18: A civilian, Samireddy Ganeshwar Rao of Beram village, was hacked to death by the CPI-Maoist cadres at Pulumamidi village in the G. Madugula sub-division of Visakhapatnam district. In a letter found near Rao’s body, the Maoists held him responsible for the Amidela police encounter (September 24, 2007) wherein four Maoists were killed.

Police arrested three extremists working for the Sudhakar dalam of the CPI-Maoist in the Yellandu area in the Khammam district. They were identified as Punem Narasimha, Menchu Mallaiah and Joga Rama Rao.

January 19: The Hindu reported that the CPI-Maoist, as part of a major redeployment exercise, has drafted cadres from the neighbouring State of Chhattisgarh for stepping up its presence in its strategically important strongholds of Khammam district. Members trained in guerrilla warfare were deputed in large numbers to the region and a majority of them were closely associated with the operations spearheaded by Maoist squads in the Bhadrachalam and Yellandu areas. Members from Chhattisgarh have joined the Sabari area committee operating in the Bhadrachalam division.

January 21: A CPI-Maoist ‘deputy commander’, Korra Rama Rao alias Manoj, surrendered before the Visakhapatnam district Superintendent of Police Akun Sabharwal. Rao joined as a member of the Galikonda special dalam in 2002 and gradually rose to the position of ‘deputy commander’ of Palakajeedi dalam. He was shifted as ‘deputy commander’ of Galikonda platoon, after the Palakajeedi dalam was banned. He was involved in more than 10 exchanges of fire with the police and a murder at Peddavalasa.

January 22: Maoists called for building a militant movement for achieving statehood for the Telangana region. In a statement issued, the CPI-Maoist spokesman in Andhra Pradesh, Janardhan, said political leaders from the Telangana region were now being forced to speak in favour of carving out a separate State in view of the growing aspirations among the people of Telangana region.

January 26: CPI-Maoist cadres shot dead three persons, accusing them of being police informers, at Borlagunda village in the Karimnagar district. According to the police, a group of 15 Maoists entered the village at around 2 am (IST), picked up the three from their homes and gunned them down. The three had been associated with the Maoist outfit in the past.

January 29: According to a statement issued by the District Police, Muvvala Vannama alias Vara, a 20-year old member of the Galikonda dalam of the CPI-Maoist surrendered to the G.K. Veedhi Police in Visakhapatnam district. A native of Pedapadu village of G.K. Veedhi sub-division, she joined the squad in 2005 and worked for about one-and-a-half years in it.

January 30: Guntur district police recovered arms and ammunition from two dumps belonging to the CPI-Maoist at Bollapalli and Papayapalem reserve forest areas. The seizure included two .303 rifles, a .38 rifle, .8 mm rifle, country made revolver, a S.B.B.L gun, revolver rounds and .38 rifle spare magazines. Police also recovered two landmines weighing 10 kilograms and three kilograms respectively, and 100 books of revolutionary literature.

February 2: The CPI-Maoist Central Committee member Lanka Papi Reddy Ranganna surrendered before the State Home Minister K. Jana Reddy in the Hyderabad Secretariat. Papi Reddy served the banned outfit in various capacities in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh before being made in-charge of Haryana, a position he held till the surrender.

February 3: A CPI-Maoist cadre identified as Thummala Bhagavanthu alias Narsimha was arrested in Mahabubnagar district. A 303 rifle, 55 live rounds and INR 20,000 in cash were recovered from his possession. Narsimha was the ‘commander’ of Kalwakurthy dalam and was active in the Nallamala forest. He had joined the naxal movement in 1989 and was involved in over 90 offences, including murders, police sources said.

February 5: Three CPI-Maoist cadres from Chhattisgarh were arrested by the police in the Kothagudem area. The arrested included ‘commander of the Konta platoon Section –C’ Madakam Posa alias Ganga, the dalam members Deva and Sanna. Unspecified quantity of explosives were seized from them.

February 6: The CPI-Maoist ‘Protection platoon commander’ of North Telangana special zone committee (NTSZC) Ambir Kistaiah alias Krishna and his wife and NTSZC special guerrilla squad ‘deputy commander’ Alam Laxmi alias Sumalatha surrendered before Superintendent of Police Y. Gangadhar in the presence of OSD Harikrishna in Karimnagar. Kistaiah was involved in the Asarelli police station attack in Maharashtra in 2000 and where he took away 20 SLRs, four .303 rifles, one revolver. He revealed that the Maoists are planning to comeback with a vengeance in its erstwhile stronghold of Dandakaranya in the north Telangana region by committing major offences to make their presence felt. The protection platoon of NTSZC is moving in groups of 25 to 30 members to commit a major offence and regain their lost ground. Later, the platoon committee members would split into smaller groups and move separately to commit offences on individual targets. He also said that the NTSZC meeting was held in November 2007 and it discussed about the economic support and strengthening of the dalams. He said that there were about 50 Maoists in entire NTSZC including 28 in KKW (Karimnagar, Khammam and Warangal districts).

February 14: A cadre of the CPI-Maoist was killed during an encounter with a police party at Lovavalasa in the Vizianagaram district. He was identified as Rukdar alias Sudheer, the Malkangiri divisional committee member in Orissa. According to police sources, rest of the Maoists belonging to the Koraput dalam managed to escape from the incident site.

February 22: Police neutralized a CPI-Maoist arms dump at the Reddypalem forest area in Karampudi police station limits of Guntur district. The recovery was done on the basis of information provided by some of the arrested Maoists. The recovered arms included 10 claymore mines, four country made grenades and piped grenades, 50 detonators, a .303 rifle and a tapancha (country made fire arm) and some revolutionary books.

February 28: Seven CPI-Maoist cadres including some teenagers surrendered in the Visakhapatnam district.

A teenaged female cadre of the CPI-Maoist, identified as Gundu Uppamma alias Radhakka, surrendered before the Superintendent of Police Vijay Kumar at the district headquarters in Nalgonda.

Suspected cadres of the CPI-Maoist killed an activist of the ruling Congress party, identified as G. Prakash, in the outskirts of Baleru village in the Srikakulam district. The extremists also left a letter stating that Prakash was killed because he was working as a police informer in the village.

March 1: CPI-Maoist cadres set ablaze teakwood worth INR two million at Pusuguppa village in the Cherla mandal of Khammam district. Some non-tribals in the name of tribals had taken permission from the Forest Department and cut down teakwood trees. Having learnt that the non-tribals were trying to enjoy the forest produce, the Maoists set the wood on fire.

March 5: Five Maoists, including three ‘commanders’ and a cadre of the CPI-Maoist and a ‘zonal committee secretary’ of the Prathighatana group, surrendered to the district police at Warangal in the presence of Superintendent of Police Soumya Mishra. The surrendered included Kukunoor Local Organising Squad (LOS) ‘commander’, P. Sammaiah alias Naveen (carrying a head money of INR 200000) and his wife M. Pushpa, Narsampet LOS ‘commander’ Kadari Bhaskar alias Ramesh, and ‘commander’ P. Lakshmi alias Pushpa of the CPI-Maoist and Peddapalli zonal committee secretary of the Prathighatana group, K. Chinni Krishna alias Anil.

March 10: The CPI-Maoist and the Janashakti group of the naxalites called for a State-wide bandh (general strike) on March 14, protesting against the visit of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi to the State. A joint statement whose signatories were Chandranna, Maoist North Telangana Special Zonal Committee (NTSZC) secretary, and Bharath, secretary of the Janashakti Godavari Valley Regional Committee, branded Sonia Gandhi an "American agent" and called upon people to observe bandh to protest against her visit. The statement also blamed the ruling Congress party for not taking up any developmental projects for Telangana region and for abandoning its promise of forming a separate State.

March 11: Two CPI-Maoist cadres, including a member of the Andhra Pradesh- Orissa Border (AOB) Special Zone Committee identified as Chokkari Gangaram alias Jagabandhu alias Kommu, were killed in an exchange of fire with police between Kedaripuram and Elvispeta under Elvispeta police station limits of Vizianagaram district.

March 12: G. Sampath, a cadre of the CPI-Maoist, was killed in an encounter with the police personnel near Peddavagu between Nimmagudem and Pegadapalli villages in the Karimnagar district. He has been identified as a key action team member of the Mahadevpur area.

March 16: Four suspected CPI-Maoist cadres killed a former coal mine worker identified as Pittala Sankaraiah, at his home in the Kanagarthi village of Peddapalli mandal in the Karimnagar district. The son of the slain person had also been killed by the Maoists on suspicion of the former being a police informer.

March 19: A CPI-Maoist deputy commander, Dasarapu Radha alias Swapna, carrying a head money of INR 50,000 surrendered before the police in the Warangal district. Superintendent of Police (SP) Soumya Mishra said that Radha hailing from Ramakrishnapur in the Chityal mandal had joined the Chityal dalam in 2003 and worked with top Maoist leaders such as Chettiraja Papaiah alias Somanna and D.V.K. Swamy alias Yadanna. She was working with the newly formed Chennur squad in Adilabad district since 2007.

March 24: A bandh called by the CPI-Maoist in the Visakha agency to protest the killing of its cadres in police encounters in the recent past, partially affected general life in some places and failed to evoke a response in some other areas. State run bus services to interior areas were suspended. In areas including Paderu, Hukumpeta and Dumbriguda mandals, shops were closed. However, in Chintapalli and the tourism centre of Araku Valley, the strike had no impact.

Andhra-Orissa Border Special Zone Committee East Division Action Team Commander and Galikonda Platoon ‘A’ section member Velusuri Srinivas alias Prasad alias Chinni Vijay (22) surrendered before the East Godavari district Superintendent of Police B. Srinivasulu.

March 25: CPI-Maoist cadres triggered a bomb blast at the Gumada Railway station in the Vizianagaram district. A group of seven Maoists, including three women, planted gelatin sticks at the station after forcing the railway staff on night duty to come out from the station. The signal system was badly damaged due to the blast and traffic between Vizianagaram and Orissa was disrupted following the explosion.

March 29: Kursinge Kousalya Bai alias Kamalakka, a CPI-Maoist woman cadre, surrendered before the Adilabad district police. Kamalakka hails from Lothera in the Jannaram mandal and had participated in the attack on a police camp at Rani-Bodli in the Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh in which 55 policemen were killed.

April 2: A senior CPI-Maoist leader, identified as Gajerla Saraiah a.k.a. Azad a.k.a. Bhaskar, was killed in an encounter with the police near Kanthanpalli in the Rampur forest area of Warangal district. Azad’s wife and another Maoist B. Aruna alias Rama too were killed during the encounter. Azad was a central committee member of the outfit and was in-charge of its central military commission. Four Maoists, however, managed to escape from the incident site fro where a pistol, a revolver, one 30 mm carbine and three kitbags were recovered.

The Eturu Nagaram Local Guerrilla Squad (LGS) ‘commander’ of the CPI-Maoist, Purushotham Tirupathi alias Naresh, surrendered before the Karimnagar district Superintendent of Police Y. Gangadhar. Purushotham, a native of Nandi Medaram village, joined the Maoist group in 2001 and had worked in the Peddapalli dalam and Eturu Nagaram dalam before being promoted as dalam ‘commander’ of Eturu Nagaram LGS in 2005. He was involved in five exchanges of fire and four murders.

April 12: The lone woman member of the CPI-Maoist Central Committee, 54-year old Anuradha Ghandy, also known as Narmada and Rama, died of cerebral malaria, a release by the outfit’s Central Committee spokesman Azad said. Anuradha had joined the Naxalites in the early 1970s and was the founding member of the CPI-ML in Maharashtra. She also served as a member of the Vidarbha regional committee and the Maharashtra State Committee and was elected to the Central Committee of the CPI-Maoist in January 2007.

April 25: Two CPI-Maoist cadres were arrested at Kinchuru in Peda Bayalu mandal in the Visakhapatnam district. Identified as Vandalam Chinna (20) and Poibu Machi Raju (22), the arrested Maoists were planning to plant two land mines. Two land mines and some quantity of explosives were seized from them.

April 29: CPI-Maoist State committee member, M.A. Srinivasan, surrendered before the Andhra Pradesh State Human Rights Commission. Haling from the Sangareddy district, Srinivasan had joined the left-wing extremist movement in 1985 and was operating in north India since 1993.

May 2: CPI-Maoist Maddedu divisional committee member of the Dandakaranya region, Velpula Rajesh Kumar alias Tirupati and area committee member, local organizing squad (LOS) commander and his wife Chunchu Rama Devi alias Sharada surrendered before Karimnagar Superintendent of Police Y Gangadhar. Tirupati, a native of Khammampalli in Manthani Mutharam mandal of former Assembly Speaker D. Sripada Rao at Dubbalapadu in Manthani division of Karimnagar district. He had joined the left-wing extremism in 1993 as dalam member.

May 5: Five CPI-Maoist cadres surrendered in Warangal. They were identified as Khammam district committee member CP Koppula Bathakaiah alias Naveen of Tadvai mandal, Chennur Local Guerrilla Squad (LGS) commander, Dudapaka Sampath alias Kondanna of Chityal, Chilpur LGS commander Velmala Bhemavva alias Nirmala of Khanapur in Adilabad, and Khammam district committee member Vajja Samba Rao alias Ashok of Govindraopet mandal.

Jharkhand

January 1: A police constable, identified as Sunil Kumar, was killed and three others wounded when armed CPI-Maoist cadres attacked a police outpost at Bansjore in the Simdega district. "Nearly 500 Maoist rebels surrounded the outpost and hurled petrol bombs before firing indiscriminately around midnight last night. Policemen retaliated and the gunfight lasted till three in the morning," said Sergeant Major J.K. Jha. Police have claimed some fatality on the Maoists side on the basis of bloodstains found at the encounter site. A civilian was also injured in the attack.

An explosion targeting the Simdega Superintendent of Police, D.B. Sharma, who was rushing with police re-enforcement to the encounter site, and a brief exchange of fire between the police and extremists occurred at Keriaghati. However, no casualty was reported in the incident.

January 3: A joint team comprising police personnel of Palamau and Garwah districts raided Obra village under Bishrampur police station in the Palamau district and arrested five alleged CPI-Maoist supporters. Five guns were recovered from their possession.

The Garhwa district Superintendent of Police, Saket Singh, suspended a police constable, identified as Mukesh Kumar Singh, on the charges of passing information to the Maoists. Police sources said that the conduct of Mukesh was under the scanner since he was posted with Majhiaon police station. Recently, the police found strong evidence showing his indulgence in passing vital information to the Maoists in the area.

January 5: A CPI-Maoist senior cadre, Ashok Yadav alias Ashokji, a resident of Arwal village in the Jehanabad district, was arrested by the Special Task Force personnel near Danua village in the Giridih district. Ashokji was wanted in 13 cases of murder, arms loot and ransom. A pistol, five live cartridges, two cell phones and a diary were recovered from his possession.

January 6: Police arrested Vineeta alias Simppi, the women wing ‘area commander’ of the CPI-Maoist, from Bardari village in the Garwah district. She was wanted in 22 murder cases and 37 cases of encounter with the police. During her interrogation, Vineeta reportedly admitted that she was a part of the CPI-Maoist squad, which had planted a landmine which killed six police personnel at Saro valley in the district on September 12, 2007 and looted 185 rifles from a police barrack in Giridih on July 14, 2007.

January 8: Around 200 armed CPI-Maoist cadres raided Muktma village under Simaria police station in the Chatra district and abducted three persons. Subsequently, two of the abducted persons were killed in a nearby forest area while the third one was released.

Jharkhand Police indicates that the CPI-Maoist unit in the state recently gave compensation to families of their cadres who died during the anti-Maoist operations by the police. The families of some of the cadres killed in the Latehar and Chatra areas were the first beneficiaries of the scheme. Jharkhand Police spokesperson, R K Mallik, confirmed the introduction of compensation by Maoists. In some cases, the Maoists have also taken over the responsibility of school-going children of their dead cadres, he said.

January 12: Three CPI-Maoist cadres, including a ‘zonal commander’ of the CPI-Maoist, Mahendra Karwa, were killed in a three hour gun battle with security forces in Chainpur hills of the Palamau district. The gunfight took place when patrolling Jharkhand police and CRPF personnel spotted 10 Maoists on January 11-night. Two rifles, live cartridges and explosives were recovered from the slain cadres.

February 8: Two CRPF personnel were killed and four others injured during an encounter with cadres of the CPI-Maoist in Giridih district. The encounter followed an ambush by the Maoists on a police patrol in the Madhuban forest area and it reportedly continued for over 12 hours. Police sources claimed that over a dozen Maoists were killed, but their colleagues managed to take away the bodies. Maoists also triggered seven landmine blasts during the encounter.

February 14: Seven CPI-Maoist cadres, including Vikash, an accused in the killing of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) Member of Parliament Sunil Mahto, were killed in an encounter with security forces at Phuljore in the East Singhbhum district. Deputy Inspector General of Police Manoj Mishra stated that two women cadres were among the slain Maoists. The encounter followed an exchange of fire between the Maoists and the Nagarik Suraksha Samiti (NSS), a vigilance organisation formed by villagers with support of the district police, in which two Maoists were killed. When a joint team of the CRPF and local police personnel rushed to the area to assist the NSS, an encounter took place with the Maoists in which five extremists were killed. Eight weapons and some live cartridges were recovered from the encounter site.

February 19: The CPI-Maoist called a 24-hour State-wide strike on February 21 against the killing of seven of its cadres on February 14.

February 23: Two cadres of the CPI-Maoist, including a self-styled ‘zonal commander’, were killed by the security forces at Dhenkua in the Garwah district.

February 25: A ‘sub-zonal commander’ of the CPI-Maoist was killed in an encounter with the police while another ‘sub-zonal ‘commander’ of the outfit was arrested at Madanpur village in the Palamau district. The incident occurred after the Maoists opened fire on a police patrolling party.

February 28: The CPI-Maoist cadres attacked three strategic positions of the Jharkhand Police - Netarhat police station, Special Task Force camp at Vivah Mandap and Jharkhand Armed Police camp - in the Netarhat forest area of Latehar district. However, no loss of life or injury was reported. "No one sustained injury in the incident as the rebels fled under the cover of darkness," police spokesperson R.K. Mallick said. "Around 500 rebels attacked to loot arms and ammunition," an unnamed police officer said. "While the rebels fired 800 rounds on the camps, we fired 500 rounds on them in the two-hour face-off," said another police official at Netarhat.

March 5: Police destroyed large amounts of poppy cultivation allegedly grown by the CPI-Maoist in the Ghaghra area of Gumla district. "It cannot be said very clearly, but of late, cases of opium farming have come from the militancy-hit areas. It cannot be denied that it is the rebels who benefit from opium plantations," said Vinod Kumar, Station House Officer in Ghaghra-Gumla station.

March 10: CPI-Maoist cadres attacked three Jharkhand Armed Police (JAP) personnel using chilly powder at Chowka under Chandil police station jurisdiction in the Seraikela-Kharsawan district and snatched two INSAS and one self-loading rifle from them. The extremists then reportedly fled into the forests in Dinai hills near Urmal, about five kilometers from Chowka police station, where an exchange of fire between the police and extremists was reported.

April 1: Joint teams of the Jharkhand Police and the CRPF personnel in an encounter killed eight CPI-Maoist cadres, including a woman and a ‘sub zonal commander’ of the outfit, at Bandu village under Ranka Police Station in the Garhwa district. The Director General of Police (DGP), V. D. Ram, told, "We had received a tip off about the movement of Maoists. One SLR, four 303 rifles, three 315 rifles, one sten-gun, one DBBL gun, one country made revolver and large number of live cartridges besides naxal literatures and belongings of the Maoists were recovered." Of the eight slain Maoists, one was identified as Basant Yadav, a ‘sub-zonal commander’, while two others are suspected to be Rajesh Paswan and Lallan Thakur, both ‘area commanders’.

CPI-Maoist cadres killed four civilians at Poradih-Chenpur village in the Khunti district. Dead bodies of the victims whose throats were slit were recovered on April 2. A hand-written note left behind by the Maoists claimed the four persons were being ‘punished’ for indulging in robbery. The Maoists also claimed to have taken away a hand-made pistol and three motorbikes from the slain villagers.

April 2: 13 security force personnel and a two-and-a-half-year-old girl were injured in a landmine blast triggered by suspected Maoists in the Banasu village in the Hazaribagh district. The SF personnel were conducting a joint patrolling in the area, about 35-kilometres from the district headquarters.

April 5: Ranchi police arrested a suspected CPI-Maoist cadre, Jeetan Marandi, from the from Sukhdeonagar locality in the Ranchi city. The arrested Maoist is suspected to have led an attack in October 2007 that led to the killing of 19 people, including the son of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Babulal Marandi.

April 8: Nine persons were killed and two others injured when the CPI-Maoist cadres fired on a vehicle and subsequently set it ablaze in the Semra forest area under Palkot police station of Gumla district. Among the victims were Bhado Singh, a member of Shanti Sena (Peace Force), a police backed resistance force, and his family members. Singh and his family members were proceeding to Palkot from Bhagina village.

April 14: A group of five CPI-Maoist cadres killed the brother of a civil contractor at Bamnatora village in the East Singhbhum district. The contractor, Bholanath Mohanty, was not present at the site of an under-construction check-dam when the Maoists were looking for him. Not finding him, Maoists killed his brother, Sashinath, who was supervising the construction work.

April 16: The CPI-Maoist cadres blew up a two-metre stretch of railway track between Hazaribagh Road and Parasnath railway stations in the Giridih district. The blast affected rail traffic in the Grand Chord section of Jharkhand, the main line that connects eastern and northern India.

April 19: Two civilians were killed as CPI-Maoist cadres opened fire on moving trucks at Karamdih under Chandil police station in the Saraikela-Kharswan district. The outfit had called for a 24-hour general strike in Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal in protest against price rise. Superintendent of Police Laxman Prasad Singh said that a group of 15 Maoists fired at the trucks plying on the Tata-Ranchi highway killing two persons aboard two separate trucks. Another truck fell into a roadside ditch after its driver, in an attempt to escape the gunfire, lost control over the vehicle. The Maoists subsequently set ablaze the truck.

April 26: Three policemen and two CPI-Maoist cadres were killed in an encounter in Dumka.

Two Maoists were arrested during a combing operation near Parasnath in the Giridih district. A landmine and some detonators were recovered from the Maoists, identified as Manoj Chaudhary and H. Singh. The duo was involved in several extremist activities, including looting of police weapons in Madhupur.

April 27: Five CPI-Maoist cadres were killed during an encounter with the security forces near the Dilwa railway station. Police sources said that a group of 100 Maoists were planning to blow up the nearby Koderma railway station when the SFs intervened, leading to the encounter. The SF personnel recovered an unspecified number of rifles and cartridges from the incident site.

April 28: A group of armed CPI-Maoist cadres killed a civilian in the Dolh Gaon village of the Garwah district branding him a police informer.

A group of Maoists set ablaze five houses in the Nathpur village of Gumla district. The Superintendent of Police, Baljeet Singh, said that the Maoist action followed after the villagers allegedly continued to give shelter to one Manoj Yadav, who snapped links with the CPI-Maoist to join the JLT a month ago. Household articles of four of the five houses were destroyed in the fire.

April 29: CPI-Maoist cadres triggered an explosion damaging an under-construction Government building at Madhuban in the Giridih district. A group of 20 Maoists reportedly reached the vacant building site and packed it with explosives before triggering the blast. In February 2007, the same building being built for the tourists by the Government had been destroyed by the militants.

Bihar

January 1: At least four policemen were killed and another sustained injuries in an attack by the CPI-Maoist cadres on Bariapur police post in the Munger district. More than 100 Maoists attacked the police post, which was keeping a vigil over a picnic spot in Rishikund, where hundreds of people had gathered to celebrate the New Year. According to sources, the Maoists did not disturb the tourists and opened indiscriminate fire on policemen killing four on the spot.

January 6: The CPI-Maoist cadres shot dead Naresh Das, the husband of Pancha Devi, village head of Nazari panchayat (village level local administration body) under Lakhmipur block in the Jamui district. Police claimed that the Maoists killed Das because he had refused to pay them protection money.

January 13: Police claimed to have killed six cadres of the CPI-Maoist in an encounter at Bangudwa Naktaia hills in the Gaya district. The Deputy Superintendent of Police, Balram Kumar Choudhry, said that dead bodies of the slain Maoists could not be recovered from the encounter site as these were taken away by their colleagues. The encounter is reported to have occurred following a police raid on a Maoist hideout. The encircled Maoists, instead of laying down their arms, opened fire on the raiding party forcing the police to return fire in which six Maoists were killed.

A team of the Gaya district police and Maoists numbering several dozens exchanged heavy fire near Domchuan village on the Bihar-Jharkhand border. Gaya Superintendent of Police Amit Jain said that as the police team reached an area close to Domchuan village following a tip-off that a large number of heavily armed Maoists had congregated, Maoists opened fire from sophisticated weapons, including LMGs. Jain also stated that at least two Maoists were injured in the exchange of fire but were carried away by their comrades.

January 21: Armed CPI-Maoist cadres set ablaze four tractors and a machine of a private firm engaged in the construction of the building of Piro railway station in Bihar's Bhojpur district. Non-payment of money demanded by the Maoists from the firm management is suspected to be the reason behind the attack, police sources said.

January 27: A cache of arms and ammunition was recovered from a CPI-Maoist hideout in the Gaya district during a raid. The hideout was located near a forest under Fatehpur block in Gaya, around 100 kilometres from State capital Patna. However, no arrests were made.

January 29: CPI-Maoist cadres dragged out two businessmen from their houses and shot them dead in the Jamui district of Bihar. The victims, identified as Vishnudeo and Sukdeo, were killed on January 28-night at Bamdah Bazaar under Chandramandi police station in Jamui, about 150 km from the State capital Patna. "Over 100 armed Maoists stormed Bamdah Bazaar locality and surrounded the houses of Vishnudeo and Sukdeo. They were then dragged out and shot dead," the police said. Jamui, which is located close to the border with Jharkhand, is considered to be a stronghold of the CPI-Maoist.

January 30: CPI-Maoist cadres detonated a dynamite destroying a Forest department rest house at Sonarwa village in Kharagpur sub-division of Munger district. They also set ablaze the furniture in the rest house. No one, however, was injured in the incident as the rest house was lying abandoned.

February 13: An encounter between cadres of the CPI-Maoist and police personnel lasting over five hours was reported from Chouraha village in the Gaya district. Further details of the encounter were not available.

Police claimed to have recovered a cache of arms and ammunition from cadres of the CPI-Maoist following an encounter with them at Jhalar village in Gaya district on the Bihar-Jharkhand border. Amit Kumar Jain, the Superintendent of Police, told, "We have recovered two regular police rifles, about 54 live rounds in a charger and magazines." He also said that the Maoists had escaped from the encounter site and a search was under way to find them.

February 19: A joint team of police and excise department officials destroyed poppy crops allegedly grown by the CPI-Maoist in the Imamganj police station area of Gaya district. "We have destroyed the crops grown on 24 acres of land under Imamganj police station area," Omprakash Singh, a senior excise department official said. Imamganj and its adjoining areas in Gaya are considered as strongholds of the CPI-Maoist. Singh further said that the extremists cultivate poppy to fund their illegal activities.

February 21: Suspected CPI-Maoist cadres shot dead three farmers at Pipra village under the jurisdiction of the Darpa police Station in the East Champaran district. Heavily armed Maoists attacked the village around midnight and shot dead three persons said to be farmers, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) A. K. Singh said. However, Times of India quoted the Raxaul DSP Santosh Kumar Gupta as saying that it was not a Maoist attack, rather it was the result of the clash between Community Party of India- Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) and the late landlord's Harendra Singh’s henchmen. The report said that the deceased, identified as Pandit (60), Mahendra Ray (36) and Ram Ekbal Majhi (40), all of Pipara village, were activists of the CPI-ML and were gunned down by an armed group of 25 persons at around 10pm (IST) on February 21 while they were sitting around a bonfire. The family members of the three CPI-ML men alleged that the killers were henchmen of late Harendra Singh, a landlord of the area.

The-24 hour bandh (general strike) called by the CPI-Maoist in Jharkhand partially affected train movement particularly in the Dhanbad, Mughalsarai and Danapur divisions of the East Central Railway (ECR). Movement of several passenger trains was cancelled due to the bandh as a precautionary measure. However, no untoward incident has been reported from any part of ECR divisions. The strike in Jharkhand was peaceful but it affected business and other activities in the rural areas.

February 22: Two villagers were killed in a shootout with armed cadres of the CPI-Maoist who raided a village in the Khagaria district. Three to four Maoists were reportedly injured in the incident.

February 23: Police arrested seven cadres of the CPI-Maoist from a van near Makhor village under Akbarpur police station of the Nawada district. According to the Inspector General of Police (Operations), S K Bharadwaj 40,000 gelatin sticks, 8,640 detonators and 23 bundles of high explosive wires, were recovered from a truck travelling along with the van. Those arrested confessed before the police that the consignment was on way from Guna in Madhya Pradesh to Maoist groups active in Sheikhpura, Jamui, Lakhisarai and Munger districts of Bihar.

The Jamui district police arrested an ‘area commander’ of the CPI-Maoist, identified as Sanjay Hembrom, from Chandramandi police station area. Sanjay was involved in the Chilkaridih massacre that claimed 20 lives, including that of Anup Marandi, youngest son of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha Prajatantrik party chief and former Chief Minister of Jharkhand Babulal Marandi, on October 28, 2007.

February 26: An engineer, identified as Sanjay Singh and a supervisor, identified as Dharmendra Singh, of a Jharkhand-based Vijeta Construction Company were abducted by armed cadres of the CPI-Maoist who raided their camp office at Chhotki Chenari under the Sheosagar police station of Rohtas district. The Construction Company was engaged in the construction of Shivsagar-Chenari road in the district. According to police sources, the company received a ransom call from the abductors for safe release of the officials.

A zonal ‘commander’ of the CPI-Maoist, identified as Nandu Mahato (carrying head money of INR 25000) was arrested from a hideout at Chauhuar village in the Gaya district. Police said that he was involved in several incidents of murder and abduction in the district.

February 28: An engineer and a supervisor of a private road construction company abducted by the CPI-Maoist in Rohtas district on February 26-night from their camp office at Chhotki Chenari, were rescued from Belao village in the neighbouring Kaimur district. The Additional Superintendent of Police, P Kannan, told that four persons were detained for interrogation. The Maoists had abducted the duo after the company refused to pay extortion demanded by the outfit.

February 29: An ‘area commander’ of the CPI-Maoist , identified as Basudev, surrendered at Banke Bazaar police station in the Gaya district along with one automatic rifle, one regular rifle and large number of cartridges. Superintendent of Police Amit Kumar Jain stated that Basudev was involved in several incidents of murder and criminal activities in the district.

March 9: A joint team comprising CRPF and Special Task Force (STF) personnel raided Akurauni forest area in the Gaya district and neutralised a bunker of the CPI-Maoist. The raid was conducted on the basis of information provided by the Maoist leader Chandu Das who was arrested from Jhallar village in the district in the early hours on the same day. The team found a big water container inside the bunker and seized arms and 10,000 rounds of ammunition of several regular weapons, including INSAS rifles, 100 magazines of carbines and more than 100 hand grenades, said Superintendent of Police Amit Jain. Hundreds of police uniforms, hand grenade-making equipments, one .9mm pistol and regular rifles were also recovered from the bunker. A suspected Maoist was arrested during the search.

March 10: The Gaya police arrested Karoo Yadav, an ‘area commander’ of the CPI-Maoist from Ithari village under the Mohanpur police station area. Superintendent of Police, Amit Jain said that Karoo was involved in an encounter between the Maoists and the police in Mohanpur area. On the basis of information provided by Karoo Yadav, the police raided Ragrej village under Bodh Gaya police station and recovered two police rifles, from the possession of one Janardan Ravidas who was later arrested by police. The rifles were earlier looted by the extremists in one of its dozens of operations against the police in Bihar and Jharkhand.

March 13: 16 CPI-Maoist cadres surrendered to the police in Muzaffarpur. Of those who surrendered, five were wanted in several criminal cases, the Muzaffarpur District Superintendent of Police Ratna Sanjay said. The Maoists also deposited over 50 kilograms of explosives, six detonators, two landmines, seven pistols, four rifles, two guns and several rounds of ammunition.

March 26: The CPI-Maoist cadres killed a leader of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in the Pakhtaul village of Begusarai district. The leader identified as Ram Pukar Mahto was a member of the Begusarai district committee of the CPI-M.

March 28: Two security force personnel were injured and 18 CPI-Maoist cadres, including six women, were arrested following an encounter at Saraunja village under Birpur police station area in the Begusarai district. District Superintendent of Police Amit Lodha told "A constable of Bihar Military Police (BMP) 7th battalion Harendra Kumar Rai and Ganesh Rai of Special Auxiliary Police (SAP), a force comprising ex-servicemen raised to tackle Naxalite violence, were injured in the gunfight". Four country-made rifles, a musket, a revolver, a pistol, a crude bomb, more than 100 bullets and several police uniforms were recovered from the possession of the arrested Maoists.

April 2: Over 200 CPI-Maoist cadres attacked the house of a member of the State Legislative Assembly (MLA) in the Kala Pahar village of Aurangabad district. They set ablaze three vehicles being used by the MLA’s construction company and abducted four labourers. The MLA, Vijay Kumar Singh alias Dabloo Singh of the Lok Janshakti Party, was not present at his residence during the attack. Police suspect that the Maoist attack is linked to an extortion demand on the construction company.

April 4: Suspected CPI-Maoist cadres abducted three employees of a private contractor engaged in road construction in the Maheshwari village of Jamui district for not paying extortion amount. Contractor Pawan Kumar Singh said that the Maoists had demanded levy for continuation of road construction work and threatened him with dire consequences unless the amount was paid.

April 10: CPI-Maoist cadres killed six persons belonging to the Sashastra People’s Morcha (SSM) in the Tardih forest of Rohtas district. The slain persons, natives of Barachatti and Mohanpur blocks of Gaya district, were former members of the CPI-Maoist and had formed the SSM to assist the police. Maoist pamphlets charging the slain persons with "betraying the parent organisation and serving as police informers", were found at the incident site.

April 13: Six persons, including five security force personnel and a porter, were killed in an attack by the CPI-Maoist cadres at Jhajha railway station in the Jamui district. A group of 200 Maoists attacked the crowded railway station, and looted 27 3.15 rifles, six self-loading rifles, two carbines and 898 rounds of ammunition from the GRP armoury. The Maoists also damaged an ATM of the State Bank of India in an attempt to loot cash, but had failed. They had also made an unsuccessful attempt to loot cash from a locker in the railway station.

April 14: Police arrested two suspected CPI-Maoist cadres, including a woman, who had taken part in the April 13 attack on the Jhajha railway station in the Jamui district.

April 17: The CPI-Maoist cadres blew up a railway track near Nathganj railway station on Gaya-Kodrama rail section. The blast affected rail traffic for over six hours. Maoists also abducted six railway staff but released them later.

April 18: The CPI-Maoist cadres blew up a petrol station at Kahudag on National Highway-II in the Gaya district. According to police sources, over 200 heavily armed Maoists attacked the petrol station, belonging to the former Gaya district board chairman Bindeshwari Prasad Yadav, and abducted its two employees. Later they triggered a dynamite blast, blowing up the pump equipment and the building. Both the employees were released after the blast.

April 27: Armed CPI-Maoist cadres killed a civilian, working for a contractor who was assigned the job of mining sand close to the embankment of a river, near Roshan Ganj police station in the Gaya district. Police sources said that the contractor had been asked by the Maoists to stop collecting royalty from the people and he had not obeyed the diktat.

April 29: The CPI-Maoist cadres destroyed houses of four persons whom they described as police informers in the Nawada district. Police sources said that an armed squad of nearly 200 Maoists raided Jamunia village and asked the occupants of the four houses to come out before using dynamites to destroy the houses.

April 30: A fast track court in the capital Patna framed charges against the senior CPI-Maoist leader Ajay Kanu and five others for their alleged involvement in the killing of a policeman in 2002 at Kandak village in Patna rural district.

Chhattisgarh

January 3: Police neutralized a CPI-Maoist camp following an encounter with the Maoists near Kotrapal village under Bhairamgarh police station limits in the Bijapur district. No causality was reported. Police recovered explosives, detonators, radio, Maoist literature and daily use material from the camp.

January 5: The CPI-Maoist cadres attacked police personnel engaged in a combing operation near Cherpal in the Bijapur district. Another group of Maoists attacked police personnel near Kotrapal. No casualty was reported in either of these incidents.

January 7: Police in the Kanker district claimed to have killed seven hardcore CPI-Maoist cadres following a raid on a camp of the outfit in a forested area under Koyalibera police station. Pawan Deo, Deputy Iinspector General of Police (Kanker range) told, "We found heavy blood stains at the encounter site and enough evidence that rebels' bodies have been carried deep inside the forest during the 90-minute fierce gun battle." The police recovered three rifles, 36 detonators, four bundles of wires used for landmine blasts, pipe bombs, tiffin bombs, Maoist uniform and literature.

The CPI-Maoist cadres attacked two vehicles of police personnel near Narsampuram in the Dantewada district. However, no causality was reported.

January 7: Police arrest a CPI-Maoist cadre, identified as Kumada, near Hadeli village under Mardapal police station limits of Bastar district. The Maoist, carrying head money of INR 3000, was involved in several incidents in the Bastar region.

January 9: One CPI-Maoist cadre, identified as Bako Maso, was killed during an exchange of fire between police personnel and the extremists in the forest near Dalmer village under Bhairamgarh police station limits of Bijapur district. The Maoists attacked the police personnel who were combing the area and fled as police opened fire. Police subsequently recovered the dead body of the Maoist along with a 12.bore rifle, one tiffin bomb and explosives from the encounter site.

January 10: A CPI-Maoist cadre of the Dhoudai dalam, identified as Mahettar alias Murali, was arrested by police from Kondagaon town in the Bastar district. The Maoist who was involved in several cases of violence in the district was in the town to buy some daily use materials for Maoists. Police recovered some Maoists banner and other daily use materials from a bag carried by the arrested Maoist.

January 14: Five CRPF personnel were wounded in an ambush by armed Maoists in a forest in the Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh. About 150 Maoists attacked a joint police party of the CRPF and district forces when the security force personnel were on a de-mining and area dominance operation in the Jharghati jungle, about 350 kilometers from State capital Raipur, the District Superintendent of Police Ajay Yadav said.

January 18: Two CPI-Maoist cadres, identified as Bhagat and Kosa, were killed during an encounter between police personnel and the Maoists in the forest area in the Konta village of Dantewada district along the Chhattisgarh-Andhra Pradesh border. Police recovered one rifle, one 12 bore rifle and a cartridge from the encounter site.

January 21:The STF and the CRPF personnel raided a Maoist hideout in Dantewada's Kirandul area and subsequent to an encounter recovered a huge cache of explosives. The Inspector General of Police Girdhari Nayak said, "STF and CRPF fought a fierce battle with the Leftist insurgents for at least 30 minutes in a forest bastion of the ultras. The rebels fled, leaving a stock of explosives, literature and uniforms."

January 22: Malti, a top ‘commander’ of the CPI-Maoist and wife of the spokesman of the outfit Gudsa Usendi, was arrested from Farid Nagar locality in the Supela area of Durg district along with two of her associates. Nine pistols, five locally made firearms, one wireless set, INR 600,000 in currency notes and 11 mobile phones were recovered from the house, in which she was reportedly staying for the past two years. Police have also detained a freelance journalist from the Bhilai area for his alleged connection with the arrested Maoists.

January 23: A Kolkata-based publisher Asit Sengupta was arrested in Raipur, capital of Chhattisgarh, for his alleged links with the CPI-Maoist. A senior police official told, "A publisher from Kolkata, Asit Sen Gupta was arrested after huge amount of literature related to the banned Naxal organisation CPI-Maoist and other things were recovered from his house from Tikrapara area of Raipur."

January 28: Indian Express reported that Bastar in Chhattisgarh is emerging as the new training ground for CPI-Maoist cadres from across the country. The People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) is running four camps in the forests of the region where cadres from several states are being given "on the job" training in carrying out attacks and planting explosives. Intelligence reports and documents seized by the Chhattisgarh Police indicate that Bastar is the new epicentre for Maoist extremism and officials suspect that 1,500-2,000 cadres are present in these camps at any given time.

Chhattisgarh Director General of Police Vishwaranjan stated that while three of the camps were located in the jungles of Bijapur and Dantewara districts, one camp is believed to be located in the Abujhmarh forests. "According to intelligence inputs received by us, apart from locally recruited cadres, Maoist extremists from other states, including Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, are also being given training," he said. Apart from 8,000-10,000 armed PLGA and Jan militia in the region, there are also 25,000-35,000 Maoist sympathisers or Sangham members.

January 30: At least nine villagers were abducted by a group of CPI-Maoist cadres in the Bijapur district, police sources said. About 70 Maoists, including armed rebels, stopped a jeep carrying the villagers near Bhogamguda village and asked for each one’s identity. Subsequently, nine villagers were taken away to a forest area.

CPI-Maoist cadres abducted four Special Police Officers (SPOs) and five villagers while they were travelling in a jeep from Bijapur to Gangaloor in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. Inspector General of Police (Bastar) R K Vij told, "The Maoists stopped the jeep by felling a tree on the road. The SPOs and villagers were taken into nearby jungles."

January 31: Chhattisgarh Police arrested 15 CPI-Maoist cadres from Kanker district and recovered explosive material and firearms from them. The Maoists were holding a meeting with villagers at Jamdi when police raided the place. Further details on the recovery were not available.

February 2: Four CRPF personnel, including a Sub-Inspector, were killed by the cadres of the CPI-Maoist in an ambush in the Narayanpur district.

February 12: Security force personnel averted an attempt by the CPI-Maoist cadres to ambush the Leader of Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly, Mahendra Karma, in the Dantewada district. Karma, who tops the hit-list of the CPI-Maoist, was reportedly returning to Dantewada from Aranpur when his convoy came under attack near Potali. Retaliation by the SFs forced the Maoists to flee. Subsequently, SF personnel recovered and later defused a landmine, packed with about three kilograms of explosive, planted on the road.

February 13: A combined team of the Bijapur district police and CRPF Force personnel raided a CPI-Maoist camp in the forest area of Bansaguda police station and killed two Maoists, identified as Modyami and Awalam Dalla. Police also recovered some bombs, detonators, medicines and daily use material from the incident site.

February 18: 13 cadres of the CPI-Maoist and six CRPF personnel were killed in two separate encounters in the Bijapur district. In the first encounter, the STF personnel shot dead 10 Maoists inside Adesmetta forest under Gangalur police station in the district after they came were attacked by the Maoists who used landmines and automatic gunfire. Three CRPF head constables and an equal number of constables were killed in an encounter with the Maoists in Tadkel hill of Mirtur police station area, Inspector General of Police (Bastar range), Rajinder Kumar Vij, said. Three Maoists were also killed during the encounter, which began when a group of 60 CRPF personnel on a search mission were attacked by the Maoists with landmine blasts and machinegun fire in the area. "There were about 300 ultras," Vij said. Maoists escaped with the guns of the slain CRPF soldiers, he added.

February 13: One CPI-Maoist cadre, identified as Lakhmu alias Surjuram, was arrested by police along with a rifle at Banskot village under Badhgaon police station limits of the Kanker district. He was wanted in four incidents in the Pakhanjur and Badhgaon police station area. Another Maoist, identified as Mangruram, was arrested along with a rifle during a raid conducted by Aamaguda police at Matla village in the same district.

February 14: Seven CPI-Maoist cadres were arrested by a combined team of police and the Central Reserve police Force (CRPF) personnel in the Dantewada district. The arrested cadres were accused of destroying school buildings in the Sameli, Burgum and Potali villages. They are also accused in an attack on the Leader of Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly, Mahendra Karma, on February 12.

The Narayanpur district police arrested three Maoists from the forest area of Uchacoat. They were reportedly involved in the setting ablaze of a Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) vehicle in Bharanda road in between Narayanpur and Antagarh.

February 17: Police recovered a 10 kilogram pipe bomb from the encounter site after an exchange of fire with the Maoists near Kristaram police station in the Dantewada district.

February 21: The CPI-Maoist cadres attacked the convoy of the Collector and Superintendent of Police (SP) of Narayanpur district near Rainar village. "One of the bullets hit the third vehicle from the car of the SP and the Collector and broke its window pane," a police official said, adding that no one was injured in the incident. Both the officials were returning to the district headquarter Narayanpur after attending a grievance redressal meeting in Rainar village when the incident occurred.

February 23: Around 10-12 armed cadres of the CPI-Maoist killed a civilian, identified as Samsai, in the Sode village of Kanker district. The Maoists have alleged that the victim was a police informer.

Police arrested three Maoists, identified as Isha alias Yusuf Ansari, Amjad alias Aazad and Anmol Tirkey, from a forest area near Nagara village in the Balrampur police district during a search operation. The police also recovered one .9-mm automatic machinegun, one country made firearm and two cartridges from their possession. They were reportedly involved in setting ablaze six tractors and abducting three workers of a contractor in Nagara village on February 1-night.

February 25: Police arrested three CPI-Maoist cadres in separate incidents in the Koriya district. In the first incident one Maoist, identified as Chhotu alias Laxaman, was arrested in the Sonhat police station area along with one .315 rifle and five cartridges. Separately, two more Maoists, identified as Shiva Pratap Singh alias Chhotkan (carrying head money of INR 2000) and Rajpati Singh alias Lalla alias Rashtrapati (carrying head money of INR 3000), were arrested from the Kotadol police station area. Both the Maoists are wanted in several criminal activities in the Koriya and Surajpur police districts.

February 26: Around 50-60 armed cadres of the CPI-Maoist attacked the Bande police station in the Kanker district. However, the attack was foiled by the security force personnel and no causality was reported.

February 27: Police arrested two Maoists, identified as Mangal and Mansaram, from Patkalbeda village under Antagarh police station in the Kanker district along with two rifles.

February 29: Police during a search operation arrested five CPI-Maoist cadres, including a woman, identified as Mehattar Ram, Baisakhuram Daro, Ganguram, Anand Sore and Nirgo Bai alias Hirgobai alias Kavita, from Petargudam forest area under Badgaon police station of Kanker district.

March 1: Four Sangham (a group of hardcore over-ground cadres) member of the CPI-Maoist were arrested by a combined team of forest guards and the Special Police Officers near Chinka village under Bhairamgarh police station in the Bijapur district .

March 4: The CPI-Maoist cadres killed a civilian, identified as Sodhi Darra, in the Chintalnar police station area of Dantewada district. A pamphlet recovered from the incident site allegedly branded the victim as a police informer.

Maoists set ablaze two tractors engaged in road construction work near Kakerbeda under Chhote Dongar police station in the Narayanpur district and warned workers to stop the ongoing road construction work.

March 15: An attack by a group of heavily armed CPI-Maoist cadres on a Special Police Officer (SPO) camp in the Dantewada district was repulsed by alert SPOs. Superintendent of Police Rahul Sharma said a group of around 24 Maoists opened indiscriminate fire on the Chitalanka camp, but had to retreat when the SPOs retaliated. The camp housing about 20-25 SPOs is located two kilometres from district headquarters Dantewada town and is very close to the official residence of the District Collector and Superintendent of Police.

March 18: Joint security forces of Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh killed 17 CPI-Maoist cadres, including seven women inside the Darelli forest under Pamedu police station in the Bijapur district. The encounter followed an aerial survey that revealed an ongoing plenum of the Maoists attended by 60 cadres. Khammam Superintendent of Police D.S. Chauhan confirmed that those killed in the encounter were mostly from Khammam district. Weapons including an AK-47, three Self Loading Rifles (SLRs), landmines and many single shot weapons were recovered following two spells of the ambushes by the SFs. Police sources said more than 500 shots were fired by both sides in two spells — one at 9 AM and another four hours later. While 13 Maoists were killed in the first spell of encounter, four others were killed during the second assault.

March 20: Three Salwa Judum activists were killed by the CPI-Maoist cadres in a forested stretch in southern Chhattisgarh. Maoists reportedly abducted the deceased from a relief camp at Mathwara village in the Bijapur district and three days later killed them by slitting their throats.

March 24: The District Collector (DC) and Superintendent of Police (SP) of Kanker in the Bastar district escaped unhurt even as two policemen were wounded when Maoists triggered landmine blast targeting their vehicle. The incident occurred when the DC, K. R. Pisda, and SP, Ratan Lal Dangi, were returning to the district headquarters Kanker. Although both the senior officials escaped, the tail vehicle, carrying policemen to provide security to them, were hit by the explosion.

March 26: A day-long general strike called by the CPI-Maoist to protest against killings of 17 of their colleagues last week in southern Chhattisgarh affected normal life. The transport operators kept passenger vehicles off the road. Shops and business establishment in the forested areas of Bastar remained closed and passenger buses did not ply on the National Highway 221 in Dantewada district and on National Highway 16 in Bijapur district.

March 27: A group of 55 armed CPI-Maoist cadres raided the Mahamaya iron ore plant of the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) in Gajurao village of Durg district. They fled with 200 bags of pottassium nitrate explosive after loading them onto six trucks parked at the plant. The Maoists also abducted the manager of the unit and seven other staff members.

A policeman and five personnel of the bomb disposal squad of Chhattisgarh police were injured in a land mine blast triggered by CPI-Maoist near Sendhawadi village in Rajnandgaon district.

March 28: CPI-Maoist cadres on March 28 released all the eight officials and employees they had abducted from Durg district on March 27. Durg District Superintendent of Police Dinapshu Kabra said that all the released persons were unharmed.

CPI-Maoist cadres damaged five electricity polls in the Bastar district disrupting power supply to over 150 villages. "The entire Usur block and some areas of Bhopalpatnam block are facing a blackout since Friday night. We fear the rebels may use the opportunity to attack either police or civilians installations," said Ankit Garg, the Bastar district Superintendent of Police. The supply of electricity remained disrupted till April 1.

March 31: CPI-Maoist called for a bandh in the Dandakaranya region to protest killing of 17 of their cadres in Bastar area on March 18 by the Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh police in a joint operation.

April 20: CPI-Maoist cadres killed two Salwa Judum members in the Gayatapara village of Bijapur district. Ankit Garg, District Superintendent of Police (Bijapur), said that both the victims, settlers of the Gangloor relief camp, had gone back to their village for personal work when they were attacked by a group of 20 armed Maoists.

April 24: CPI-Maoist cadres set fire to 47 vehicles of a private company, Essar Steels at Korandul in the Dantewada district. The vehicles burnt included 33 dumpers, four earth moving equipment, two diesel tankers and one bus. Some 400 Maoists including over 100 women stormed into the company premises at Kadampal locality in the town around 11.30 p.m, doused the vehicles with diesel and set them afire by keeping the guards and drivers away at gun point. Maoists subsequently fled the scene leaving behind a pamphlet issued in the name of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal committee of the outfit. The pamphlet warned the Essar Steels and another private company against continuing their operations in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh.

Maharashtra

January 6: The Chandrapur district police arrested two CPI-Maoist cadres, identified as Manoj Maroti Sonule and Vinayak Sonule, from Ramnagar. Police said that both are suspected to be members of the ‘Chandrapur Area Committee’ of the outfit. A hi-tech Chinese carbine gun, ammunition magazines and 135 live cartridges (9-mm) along with a large quantity of Maoist literature were recovered from the arrested Maoists.

January 11: Three CPI-Maoist cadres were arrested from Ballarpur. Police also neutralized a firearms production factory and a printing press, operating in Ballarpur in the Chandra district by the Maoists during the last few days. Maoist literature, sensitive diaries and CDs have been seized along with sophisticated firearms and electronic devices during the raids conducted in various towns in the district.

According to Hitavada, a CPI-Maoist cadre was arrested from Ballarpur in the same district. Some Maoist literature and two guns has been reportedly recovered form the house. The raids were conducted on the basis of the information obtained from the recently arrested Maoist duo, Manoj and Vinayak Sonule.

February 19: At least four Maoists were injured in an encounter with the Special Anti-Naxal Squad of Gadchiroli district police in the forest area near Potegaon village. The encounter started when the Maoists opened fire towards the police conducting combing operations in the area. During subsequent search operation, the police recovered a 410 musket rifle, two locally-made rifles, one grenade, four backpacks, three water bags, one live cartridge and other material from the incident site.

March 17: The CPI-Maoist cadres killed two surrendered extremists from Kondawahi village under the Jaravandi police station in the Gadchiroli district.

March 18: Daily News and Analysis reported that 56 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Maharashtra are raising funds for the Maoists. "We have concrete information that these 56 NGOs work for naxalites [Maoists] and are raising funds and recruiting people at various levels. The funds so raised are channelled through various conduits that they have created over a period of time", a senior police official said. According to the report, NGOs based in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur have been under the scanner for quite some time now. All of them work under the umbrella of the Tactical United Front (TUF) and the All India People’s Resistance Forum (AIPRF) — a conglomerate of groups sympathising with the Maoist cause. The officer added, "Run by educated people, these NGOs are instrumental in conducting brainwash sessions of the new recruits, who are primarily locals and tribals from Gadchiroli, Chandrapur, Bhandara, and Yavatmal districts."

March 19: CPI-Maoist cadres killed a surrendered extremist in the Jaravandi police station area of Gadchiroli district.

April 7: Police recovered arms and ammunition stolen by two surrendered CPI-Maoist cadres who were working as informers for the Police. Working on a tip-off, a joint search team of the Gadchiroli and Gondia district police recovered two AK-47 rifles, a hand-grenade and seven magazines dumped under a paddy stack in Gadchiroli district’s Khursipar village.

Orissa

January 2: A policeman was injured when the CPI-Maoist cadres attacked a police outpost at Baunsajhar in the Biramitrapur police station area of Sundergarh district.

January 4: A group of 20 Maoists, including two women, attacked a forest range office at Badrama in the Sambalpur district, assaulted six forest guards and locked them up in a room before ransacking the premises and setting it ablaze. Seven jeeps and four motorbikes parked in the premises were also set ablaze. Files and documents of the range office were destroyed in the fire. The Maoists also attacked the residence of a forest official, K C Nath, and took away cash, ornaments and mobile handsets.

January 5: Two CPI-Maoist cadres, identified as Raj and Kalia Mirdha, were killed during an encounter between police personnel and the extremists in the forests near Badibahal village under Jamankira Police Station of Sambalpur district. Police recovered their dead bodies on January 6-morning from the encounter site. However, several other Maoists injured in the encounter managed to escape. The police claimed to recovered three SLRs that the Maoists had looted from the police in the past and one .315 rifle that the Maoists had taken away when they attacked the Forest Range Office at the nearby Badrama Ghat on January 4-night.

January 10: Two CPI-Maoist cadres, identified as Madi Soma and Madkami Simha, were arrested by police during a raid near Mangipalli village in the Malkangiri district. Malkangiri Superintendent of Police, S.K. Gajbhiye, said that the SOG commandoes raided the forest adjacent to Mangipalli near MV 79 village on the information that a group of Maoists were camping in the area. The SOG team arrested the two, while the rest of the cadres escaped. The duo were members of the Motu dalam and were involved in several cases of murder, landmine explosion, extortion and looting in the district. Explosives including gelatine sticks, detonators, wires, switching devices and grenades, and Maoist posters were recovered from their possession.

January 16: One local trader, Bijay Kumar Degul, was stabbed to death by a group of armed CPI-Maoist cadres in front of his father, Dinabandhu, at Sanpalmanda village in the Bandhugaon block of Koraput district.

January 17: Five Maoist sympathisers were arrested from different places in the Sambalpur district. The sympathisers, Prashant Rout of Kusupur village under Balikuda police limits in Jagatsinghpur, Ramesh Bag of Pathargarh village, Phuljain Soren of Gadpati village, Buthi Mirdha and Tarani Mirdha of Basupali village under Sambalpur police limits had helped in shifting a Maoist who was injured in the January 5 encounter in Gadpati forest range under Jamankira police limits.

January 21: Three CPI-Maoist cadres were arrested from a forest area in Motu in the Malkangiri district. Police sources said that the arrested extremists were planning a major attack in the district ahead of the Republic Day celebrations on January 26. The Maoists were identified as Salbam Mukta of Konta Naxal dalam in Chhattisgarh and Kotam Malla and Modumu Rama of Motu Naxal dalam in Malkangiri. Superintendent of Police, S. K. Gajbhiye, said that Mukta, a hardcore extremist wanted in many cases including several killings, was mobilising the cadres in the area. A locally-made gun, landmines, explosive materials, 50 gelatin sticks and two detonators, publicity material including CDs were recovered from the arrested Maoists.

January 28: Maoists used landmines to blast newly built houses for police officials in the Malkangiri district. CPI-Maoist cadres exploded landmines at the empty houses which are part of a jail complex being built in MV 79 village. A district police official said the Maoists ran into a nearby forest after destroying the houses.

January 28: Maoists triggered a bomb blast at a new jail building which was under construction at MV-79 village in the Malkangiri district, causing substantial damage to it. There was no injury due to the explosion as the building was still under construction, Superintendent of Police S. K. Gajbhiye said. There was nobody inside the structure when the blast occurred in the early hours.

January 29: Ashok, ‘commander’ of the Motu People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA), was injured in an exchange of fire with the police near Kondapali forests under Motu police station in the Malkangiri district. Police stated that 20 other Maoists sustained injuries during the two-hour encounter. All of the injured, however, managed to escape.

January 30: The CPI-Maoist cadres belonging to Koraput area committee killed Nalla Markanda Choudhury, a former sarpanch (village head), with an axe at Nangalbeda in the Koraput district, reports Statesman. A 40-member Maoist squad had rounded up the village and assaulted five businessmen before killing the former Sarpanch. The Maoists also asked the businessmen not to sell liquor to the tribals in the region and to hand over the land which they had acquired from them. Before leaving the village, the Maoists pasted posters and also cut down trees to delay the movement of police.

January 30: The Jajpur district police arrested three suspected Maoists in capital Bhubaneswar while they were attending on a 21-year-old girl at a private hospital. The girl has been identified as Nanika Jamda, said to be a companion of Anna Reddy, the suspected Orissa chief of the Janashakthi faction of the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML). Police is yet to reveal the identity of the arrested Maoists although one of the arrested is suspected to be Anna Reddy.

January 31: Five CPI-Maoist cadres including Dhanu Dehuri and Bimba Kuanr were arrested from Dhama in the Sambalpur district. Dhanu is reportedly one of the founder members of the outfit in Sundargarh, Sambalpur and Deogarh districts. Sambalpur Superintendent of Police Sanjay Kumar, however, confirmed the arrest of only one Maoist and said that his identity is yet to be established.

February 5: Eight Special Operation Group (SOG) personnel escaped unhurt when landmines planted by the cadres of the CPI-Maoist exploded just after their vehicles passed the spot at Jamapani in the Mayurbhanj district. The explosion took place soon after the SOG personnel on four motor-cycles travelled along the place where the Maoists had planted the landmines on the hilly road at Gorumahisani, Superintendent of Police Dayal Gangwar said. The insurgents present in the surrounding areas opened fire at the SOG personnel, after which the security men retaliated, triggering a gun battle which continued for over half-an-hour, he added. However, no casualties were reported.

February 8: The district voluntary force, a wing of the Malkangiri district police, arrested six cadres of the CPI-Maoist from Kondapalli forest area under the Motu police station limits. The arrested include a Maoist doctor and an expert in writing Maoist literature. The arrested have been identified as Marian Mukta Madiam, Sariam Rama, Rama Prasad Sana, Dr Sujay Dafatar, Ranjit Sarkar and Karam Sita. Police recovered six detonators, 26 gelatin sticks, 100 meter wire, gun powder and some life-saving drugs from the arrested Maoists. Superintendent of Police Satish Kumar Gajbhiye said that the arrested Maoists were acting as couriers for Maoist leaders like Ashok and Jaga, attended Maoist meetings and extended logistics support to the movement.

An encounter was reported between cadres of the CPI-Maoist and SOG personnel inside the Khichilingi forest in the Gajapati district. Superintendent of Police Satyabrata Bhoi told that a group of ten to 15 Maoists attacked about 20 SOG members who were returning home from duty. The SOG personnel retaliated and following a half-an-hour long encounter, the Maoists fled to the forest. No injuries were reported in the incident. Subsequently, police seized a locally made gun from the spot.

February 9: An encounter was reported between the CRPF personnel and the CPI-Maoist cadres at Kutub under Jamankira police station limits in the Sambalpur district. The encounter occurred as a small group of Maoists attacked the CRPF camp located in the Badibahal Forest under Badrama Reserve Forest area. The Maoists later fled as the CRPF soldiers opened retaliatory fire. There was no report of any casualty in the incident.

February 15: 14 police personnel and a civilian were killed and four policemen were wounded when around 500 heavily armed cadres of the CPI-Maoist attacked a Police Training School (PTS), the district armoury and district police station in co-ordinated attacks near Daspalla in the Nayagarh district at around 10:45pm (IST). They also took away a cache of arms and ammunition in a bus they had hijacked in the district, about 100-km from State capital Bhubaneswar. Police sources claimed that three Maoists were also killed in the incident. However, their bodies have not been recovered and it is suspected that the Maoists before fleeing took away the bodies of their slain comrades. Before launching the attack, the Maoists, speaking in Hindi and Telugu, and suspected to be from neighbouring Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh, announced that they would not harm the public as their target was the police. The police suspect it to be the handy work of Sabyasachi Panda, the CPI-Maoist Andhra-Orissa ‘secretary’. Meanwhile, a red alert has been sounded in the State and the police have started combing operations in the neighbouring districts of Phulbani, Gajapati, Rayagada and Malkangiri in Orissa. The attack was the first of its kind in coastal Orissa. The district armoury and PTS were virtually emptied by the Maoists, the police said.

February 17: At least 20 cadres of the CPI-Maoist, including some women cadres, were killed during the ongoing combing operation by security forces in the border area of Nayagarh-Ganjam-Kandhamal districts. SFs, however, lost three of their personnel in the combing operation launched on a massive scale in different sensitive pockets in Nayagarh, Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal and Rayagada districts. The combing operations were started on February 16 after hundreds of Maoists raided the police establishments in Nayagarh district, killing 15 persons, including 13 policemen, and decamping with huge quantities of arms and ammunition on February 15-night. "We have information about killing of 20 Maoists and three SOG jawans during the combing operation," Home Secretary T. K. Mishra said. Without disclosing the exact location where the Maoists were killed by security forces, he said "reports are received from different places including the Gansar Hills". Mishra said sophisticated equipment like night (vision) binoculars, global positioning system (GPS) and other gadgets were being used to monitor movement of the extremists inside the dense forests. Two choppers were being used for movement of personnel in order to coordinate the operation, Mishra added.

February 20: One more Orissa Police personnel wounded during the February 15 attack by the CPI-Maoist in Nayagarh, succumbed to his injuries, taking the death toll in the attack to 16.

Security forces arrested two Maoists, identified as Reena alias Manjulata Muduli and Pratap Kambata, during the ongoing combing operations in forest areas along the borders of the Kandhmal and Ganjam districts. A 9 mm pistol, looted from the Nayagarh district armoury, was recovered from their possession. Police sources said Reena joined the extremist movement six years ago and was an active member of the Sambalpur-Deogarh committee of the CPI-Maoist. She was also involved in at least ten murders and the looting of the Deogarh armoury.

February 21: The Special Operating Group (SOG) personnel recovered leaflets, banners and Tother material of the CPI-Maoist in the forest area of Mayurbhanj district. Recently, villagers of Sergoda, Kangkadabadh, Paktia and Chadahipahadi under Gorumohisani police station jurisdiction had reported to the district police about the movement of some uniformed people in the surrounding forest area.

February 24: The CPI-Maoist cadres set ablaze a vehicle at Maijariguda in the Narayanapatna block of Koraput district. Before setting ablaze the vehicle, Maoists who were in civil dress had asked the passengers to alight from the vehicle. They also accused the driver of carrying Central Reserve Police Force personnel to Borgi from Narayanpatna on a regular basis.

Suspected Maoists looted the houses of Narasingh Choudhury of Ullu Badi in Langalabeda panchayat (local self-government body) and Giridhar Sahu of Maijariguda in Borgi panchayat in the Koraput district after causing damage to the buildings.

February 25: A group of CPI-Maoist laid siege to a camp of a contractor engaged in road construction activities under the Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojna (village road construction project) and demanded an extortion amount of INR 200,000 from him. According to the report, a group of armed Maoists seized the camp for four hours at Bhuka under Harichandanpur police station in the Keonjhar district and threatened the supervisor and contractor.

February 26: A group of eight to ten armed Maoists threatened a group of construction workers within the Ravenshaw College campus in Cuttack and asked them to join the rank of the Maoists. Subsequent search operation by the city police, however, did not lead to any arrest.

March 1: Six villagers, including a Sarpanch (village head), were abducted by suspected CPI-Maoist cadres from Janatapai village in the Malkangiri district suspecting them to be police informers. A cangaroo court (people’s court) was conducted by the extremists and all the six were found guilty, sources said adding that the villagers were assaulted and released on March 3 with a warning that the incident should not be informed to the police.

March 4: The Sambalpur district police arrested two CPI-Maoist cadres, identified as Bhagaban Jhankar and Govind Jal, who were involved in several incidents of murder and kidnapping besides setting ablaze government properties. Superintendent of Police Sanjay Kumar said that the arrest occurred a few days earlier, adding that the duo had also carried out a surveillance for a possible attack on the Bargarh district armoury.

A policeman of the Special Operation Group (SOG), identified as Rabindra Patra, sustained injuries during a gunfight with the CPI-Maoist cadres in the Malkangiri district. The Maoists attacked SOG personnel when they were combing the forests near Biliguda, Urbelguda and Kandapali villages of MV 79 area. During a subsequent search operation, the SOG personnel recovered Maoist uniforms and literature as wel