| |
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
BHEL
Bhopal Unit records 60 pc growth in exports |
|
Teacher
thrashed by four students in Greater Noida |
|
Delhi to
get a taste of Commonwealth literature |
|
Malegaon
blast accused allowed to undergo medical treatment |
|
Two
killed in Mexico earthquake |
|
US Muslim
group applauds policy change on Airline Profiling |
|
Bhopal
Shahar Qazi passes away |
|
Delhi HC snubs
school for violating Right to Education Act |
|
|
|
 |
Reservations:
Dilemmas Galore:
Heated debate has been generated
around women’s reservation bill (WRB) with both sides having their
inflexible positions. On one side there are those .....Read
Full
Women Reservation Bill:
All party meet fails to end impasse |
|
Mumbai HC
dismisses Malegaon blast accused plea seeking fresh probe:
Bombay High court today refused to order a fresh probe .....Read
Full
Congress strives for
consensus on women's bill
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
 Apex
court removes two Gujarat cops from riots probe panel: The
Supreme Court Tuesday removed two senior Gujarat police officers
from its special probe panel investigating ....Read
Full |
 World’s tallest tower
saves 3,200 KW daily :
Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, saves up to 3,200
KW of energy every day by tapping solar power to heat the 140,000
....Read
Full |
|
Delhi HC snubs
school for violating Right to Education Act:
The Delhi High Court
Monday directed a private school to take back its class VI student,
whom they had expelled because she had failed in the exams.....Read
Full |
 Ranganath
Mishra report may be discussed in parliament:
Amid political stalemate over introduction of the women's
reservation bill in the Lok Sabha, the United ....Read
Full |
| |
|
|
 |
|
|
 Shahi Imam meets PM on
Batla House shootout :
A top Muslim cleric Saturday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over
the alleged fake shootout at the Batla
.....Read
Full |
 Keep us away from sadhvi:
Malegaon accused: Apparently not happy with the media spotlight on sadhvi Pragya Singh
Thakur, nine of the 11 co-accused ....Read
Full |
|
 Govt. committed to quota
for 'backward Muslims':
Government on Wednesday
said it is committed to providing reservation to the backward
sections .....Read
Full |
 2011 population census
begins April 1:
One of the largest
census exercises, to compile India’s estimated 1.2 billion people
into one single database .....Read
Full |
|
 Problems and Prospects of
Islamic Banking in India – Road Map ahead:
Modern, secular and
industrialized countries like Britain, Singapore, Hong Kong and
Japan have become hub of .....Read
Full |
Will Dawood's facing law
be a favour? Congress asks BJP:
The Congress Tuesday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for
lauding Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's appearance before the
Special Investigation Team .....Read
Full |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Raipur/New
Delhi: India’s sweeping anti-Maoist offensive suffered a
huge blow Tuesday when the Leftwing guerrillas ambushed and
massacred 76 security personnel in the dense forests of Chhattisgarh
in the worst such attack since the Maoist rebellion erupted 43 years
ago.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh voiced concern over the unprecedented
massacre after hundreds of Maoists trapped over 80 Central Reserve
Police Force (CRPF) personnel on a hilly stretch in Dantewada
district and went on a killing spree using pressure bombs and
automatic weapons.
In no time, at least 75 CRPF men and a Chhattisgarh police officer
lay dead in the inhospitable area in the heart of the country where
the rebels have run a de facto state for decades, enlisting the
support of a large number of impoverished tribals.
As the besieged men lost radio contact with Raipur, about 450 km
away, authorities rushed helicopters, one of which came under fire.
Only seven men survived the brutal and well-planned attack, barely
two days after Home Minister P. Chidamabaram dubbed the Maoists
cowards.
In no time, security experts, including Chhattisgarh’s former
security advisor K.P.S. Gill, who crushed Sikh separatist militancy
in Punjab in 1993, hit out at the state government’s flawed
anti-Maoist offensive.
“There has obviously been some element of failure in the operation,”
admitted a candid Home Secretary G.K. Pillai. “This incident should
not have happened.”
He said all the weapons of the CRPF personnel were taken away by the
Maoists, who used pressure bombs with devastating effect. But he
said the government would not use air power against the Maoists.
Ramesh, a badly wounded trooper who was brought to Raipur, recalled
the horror that engulfed the 62nd battalion of the CRPF as it
proceeded slowly through the forests in Chintalnar area after their
vehicle was suddenly blown up.
“It was a flash attack,” the man told IANS at the Ram Krishna Care
Hospital. “I saw scores of my colleagues in a pool of blood. Maoists
were spraying bullets on us.”
In New Delhi, Manmohan Singh convened a high-level meeting. The
prime minister has repeatedly said that the Maoists have become
India’s greatest internal security threat.
The outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), which has
repeatedly spurned government offers of talks, has gone on a killing
spree in recent months despite a sweeping security crackdown under
way in eastern India.
A sombre Chidambaram said the CPRF walked into a Maoist trap.
“Something has gone very wrong,” he said. “They seem to have walked
into a trap set by the Naxalites. This shows the savage nature of
the CPI-Maoist, the brutality and savagery they are capable of.”
Gill, also a former Punjab police chief, described the anti-Maoist
operation in Chhattisgarh as “flawed”. “It has been a flawed
operation, it still is,” said Gill. “Their basic concept is flawed.”
Other experts said the dead men Tuesday violated the basic
principles of anti-insurgency drive by moving in large numbers,
providing an easy target for the Maoist People’s Liberation
Guerrilla Army (PLGA).
“There is a clear-cut instruction for paramilitary as well as police
a week’s time not to use vehicles for any offensive in forested
interiors. They are to go only on foot and not in groups,” said one
officer. “The CRPF men grossly neglected the manuals and finally
paid the price.”
While Chhattisgarh Home Minister Nankiram Kanwar blamed the killings
on intelligence failure, Chief Minister Raman Singh said: “We need
to review our strategy every day. We need to have better
coordination.”
Chhattisgarh’s mineral rich Bastar region has 40,000 sq km of land
area but is among the poorest in India in economic development.
Bastar has seen a string of deadly attacks since 2005 that has left
over 1,600 dead.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which rules Chhattisgarh, called
for an “all-out offensive” against the Maoists and said it will
support the government in its bid to root out the extremist
challenge. Tuesday’s massacre was the worst in Chhattisgarh after
March 2007 when the rebels slaughtered 55 policemen.
Officials said close to 5,000 policemen, militants and poor
villagers have died in in the last years since the Maoists upped
their anti-state offensive. Nearly 70,000 paramilitary troopers and
policemen have been deployed in the anti-rebel crackdown.
|
Comment on this article