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Showing posts from July 27, 2008

'Dharti Ki Katha', a film on naxalism

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'Dharti Ki Katha', a film on naxalism source: Sahra samay Posted at Thursday, 31 July 2008 13:07 IST New Delhi, July 31: Known for his strong performances in films like 'Bandit Queen', 'Godmother' and 'Daayra', actor Nirmal Pandey plans to direct a film based on very much a real issue - naxalism. "I have been directing plays for a long time and since the subject is quite close to my heart, it prompted me to jump into directing movies," says Pandey, who also holds a unique distinction of winning a 'Best Actress Award' for his role in 'Daayra'. Speaking about his directorial debut 'Dharti Ki Katha', Pandey says, "The root cause of the problem stems from the fact that development is yet to reach the villages and with basic needs of 'roti', 'kapda' and 'makaan' not being fulfilled the anger is vented in this manner." He adds, "Not many film

UP constitutes special task force to tackle Naxal menace

Source: Express India Lucknow, March 20 In the wake of seven more districts of the state coming under the Naxal influence, the government has now constituted a separate Special Task Force (Extremists) to tackle the Maoist problem. Sources said that a DIG-rank officer would head the new force. The government’s move comes just after the conclusion of a meeting of the Naxal Task Force (NTF) in Lucknow this week. Earlier, only three districts of Sonebhadra, Mirzapur and Chandauli were supposed to have a considerable number of Naxals but the recent reports of the central agencies point to the presence of presence of Naxals in other seven districts of the state, including Allahabad, Chitrakoot, Deoriya, Banda and Ballia. “The problem of the Left wing extremism is in Allahabad and Chitrakoot districts as the Naxals have almost completed their preliminary stage of growth and have now established their own units,” a source said. The knowledge about the spread of Naxals to new districts of the

Melsunka: A haven for Naxals

source: New Indian Express Tuesday November 27 2007 08:41 IST Manjunath Hegde SHIMOGA: Melsunka village in Hosnagar taluk has neither road connectivity nor power supply, but people still stay here as KPCL paid them compensation in instalments after the village became a restricted area in the backwater of Mani Dam of Varahi Power Project. Away from the civilian world, lack of facilities and impenetrable rainforests have made this village an ideal hub for Naxalites. It is feared that the youth here are slowly turning towards Naxal ideology. Melsunka village of Sulgodu GP in Hosnagar taluk has 87 families and they have to walk 18 kms to Yadur to buy something. They are cut off from the outer world. The only entry to the area is through Mani Dam, with permission from KPCL.Villagers of Kumribailu, Ultiga and Melsunka depend on forest products like bamboo and a few are engaged in agriculture. After the entry of Naxalites, villagers say that the Forest Department pe

Why do Naxals hate NGOs? A case study of Bihar

Monday, 02.04.2008, 01:20am (GMT-7) Source: India post Naxalism is a grave problem in Bihar. According to a March 2007 document of the Bihar Police, 30 of its 38 districts have been affected by Maoist activities. Maoist violence is endemic across the state's territory. The fight against the state by the Naxalites is explicable. But, why do they hate the NGOs? The ground reality provides many reasons for this hatred. First, the power of the Naxal outfits is the people, the masses. They fight for the downtrodden, the poorest of the poor, the lowest castes. For instance, the Naxals fight against the state to bring social justice to the Dalits. At the same time, the NGOs also work for the betterment of the downtrodden and poorer sections of society. Thus begins the rivalry for custodianship between the two. There are, however, fundamental differences in attitudes and approaches between them. The NGOs work at the grassroots and associate themselves with the

Now Naxals have a blog too!

From Veerendra P M, DH News Service, Shimoga: The Naxal discourse of the State has found new space in blogosphere. Titled www.rcpkarnataka.blogspot.com, the blog presents details about the evolution of Maoist movement in the State, its strategies and split in the movement. Though there are a number of blogs on Maoist struggle across the world, rcpkarnataka is the first blog which is dedicated for discussion about the movement in the State. The blog is promoted by Revolutionary Communist Party Karnataka, the breakaway faction from CPI (Maoist) Karnataka. The blog has interesting discussion about the reason for the split in the Naxal movement in the State. Though a section of party activists raised pertinent questions about hierarchies in party structure, but a discussion on the same was not allowed. The promoters of the blog said that absence of inner-democracy in the party resulted in the split. The document ‘Our work in urban areas’ prepared by CPI(ML) (people’s war) of Andhra Prade

Naxals news

For more news on Naxals Source: Indian Express Full Coverage > Taking on Naxals 26 Mar 2008 Probe slams officers, staff for largest Naxal jailbreak An administrative inquiry into Chhattisgarh’s Dantewara prison break on December 16, 2007 where 299 prisoners... 03 Mar 2008 Naxalites shift gaze to urban areas, think of car bombs, suicide missions Seized Naxal laptop suggests bid to acquire urban warfare capabilities, training in anti-aircraft guns 29 Feb 2008 This station has weapons, Internet, mineral water, needs a few more cops “I am giving you a constable. He will drop you off there and come back.” When Circle Inspector of Chennur police station... 28 Feb 2008 How do you win back 11 villages from Naxal control? Check with these 75 policemen “One number sentryiiiiiiii..., hoshiyaaaar hai”. The loud, long-winding call in the dead of night breaks the silence in this village... 27 Feb 2008 If Naxals can have special squads, why can’t we, ask cops Naxals frustrate Jhark

Naxalites destroying tiger reserves: Census

Source: MSN New Delhi: Tiger reserves in areas with heavy Naxalite presence and influence are the country’s worst, according to the Wildlife Institute of India’s latest tiger census report that has recorded a sharp fall in tiger population. The reason for the fall in the number of tigers in these reserves can be anything-—from poaching to loss of habitat, it said. Qamar Qureshi, WII’s chief tiger census investigator, said the tiger reserves in Naxal-affected Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa have fared poorly. “They are suffering because of Naxalism,” he said. An official of the WII said forest officials in the three states have almost acceded control of the reserves to Naxalites. Five reserves-—Indravati, Palamau, Saranda, Valmiki and Simlipal-—are in huge contiguous forest areas, making it impossible for the thinly armed forest staff to move in, the official added. The 34,000-sq km Indravati reserve in Chhattisgarh, identified by the WII as a “vital tiger reserve,” is now controlled

Bangalore, Surat bombs have Qaida imprint

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31 Jul 2008, 0021 hrs IST, Vishwa Mohan ,TNN A live bomb being defused in Surat on Wednesday (PTI Photo) NEW DELHI: Al-Qaida may not have a presence in India but its footprint was visible in the bombs used in Bangalore and Surat, according to intelligence officials. For the first time in India, Integrated Circuit (IC) chips were used to assemble bombs in Bangalore and Surat — a technique perfected by the Qaida-linked Indonesian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). Besides using the technique to bomb different places in Indonesia, JI — which aims to establish Islamic state in southeast Asia — has also exported it to Philippines where terrorists have used it effectively in a number of incidents. Referring to the technique being put to use in India, intelligence officials said some local terrorists could have visited Indonesia for training via Bangladesh — a fact which the Special Task Force (STF) of Uttar Pradesh police had first got wind of during

THE RIGHT VIEW : This war involves us all

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A child during an anti-terrorism protest in Delhi. (AFP) THE RIGHT VIEW : This war involves us all 28 Jul 2008, 1455 hrs IST, Tarun Vijay Rahul's Shashikala has got the headlines and her share of glory. Now is the time to focus on India. Beyond party lines and boundaries. He is young, charming and holds a position that makes a mark wherever he goes. Why can't he take up the fight against terror, which is bleeding India? If L K Advani can go to Sonia for a book presentation and still remain in the party, why can't Sonia come to Advani for a collective fight against terrorism? Is India smaller than the personal and political egos and fortunes? When the ISI or HuJI or Lashkar were planning attacks on Indians, we were counting notes in sacks and fighting each other. Isn't it time to at least have Sonia, Advani, Rajnath, Manmohan, Mulayam and Mayawati along with Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi to put their heads together and strategize a time-bound “el

Collateral Damage

Sitaram Yechury July 30, 2008 Terror continues to stalk the nation. In five days, 55 bombs were planted (of which, mercifully, 25 did not explode) in the three cities of Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Surat, leaving at least 53 dead. Even for a country that has brazened such terrorist attacks in the past 60 years, this has come as a shock. The country lost a Mahatma to terrorist bullets, a Prime Minister to those unleashed by Sikh terrorists; and a former Prime Minister assassinated by a suicide bomber. Innumerable lives are lost in attacks mounted by various outfits in the North-east, apart from those lost to Maoist insurgencies in various parts of the country. This splurge of blood and mayhem is not just utterly condemnable but it is simply unacceptable. Amidst the various speculations doing the rounds — including that these attacks were a retaliatory response or a ‘dry-run’ for something more horrendous in store — it was also suggested that the modus operandi was inspired by a Bollywo

Faulty chips saved Surat

Stavan Desai , Hindustan Times Ahmedabad, July 31, 2008 Faulty design of the circuit in the 18 bombs appears to have saved Surat from a catastrophe, say forensic experts. The investigators came to this conclusion after inspecting the live bombs recovered from the diamond city. They have been sent for forensic examination to the Directorate of Forensic Science (DFS), Gandhinagar. “Initial inspection of the bombs have led to the belief that the design of the timer circuits was faulty,” said M.S. Dahiya, the Additional Director at DFS. “Investigations are still on to check if there could be any other reason for non-detonation of these bombs.” The examination has also revealed that the perpetrators programmed the circuits in a manner that there would be enough time to detect and defuse. Officials now suspect this was done to analyse the response time of bomb disposal experts. “We are going to be very careful as next time the bombs might not be programmed for such a delayed explosion and

Olympic Truce for sake of mankind's grand sports gathering

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www.chinaview.cn 2008-07-31 07:37:43 Special report: 2008 Olympic Games By Song Jing and Fu Rong BEIJING, July 30 (Xinhua) -- UN leaders have this week called for an Olympic Truce, a cessation of all hostilities worldwide for the duration of the Beijing Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. The calls, made by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and President of the UN General Assembly Srgjan Kerim respectively on Monday, reflect the Olympic spirit and the mankind's dream for peace as well as the joint aspirations of the whole international community. Conflicts and wars have been tragedies in the history of humanity, while peace is mankind's ever-lasting dream. As the theme slogan of the upcoming Olympics "One World, One Dream" embodies, while the world community is made up of people of different skin colors, languages, races,

With less than two weeks to go before the Olympics open in Beijing, the Chinese government is facing the horrendous possibility of terrorist attacks a

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Beijing reacts quickly to claims by the Turkistan Islamic Party taking responsibility for recent attacks and threatening more during the Games Chinese policemen stand guard on the Tiananmen Square on July 28, 2008 in Beijing, China. The Chinese authorities have tightened security with over 100,000 police, professional and volunteer security guards. The Beijing Olympic Games start on August 8. ANDREW WONG/Getty Images With less than two weeks to go before the Olympics open in Beijing, the Chinese government is facing the horrendous possibility of terrorist attacks aimed at the Games. On July 23 an apparent terrorist group released a video taking responsibility for bus bomb blasts a few days before in the southwestern city of Kunming that killed two people. The group also claimed as its own another attack in Shanghai that killed three people in May. In the video, the group calling itself the Turkistan Islamic Party (BusinessWeek.com, 3/17/08), apparently a Uighur Muslim separati

Terror attacks India

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Courtesy: rediff I ndia has once again been attacked. This time the target was Bengaluru and Ahmedabad. The ease with which these attacks are being conducted only gives rise to one question -- Is terrorism becoming as common as a case of theft? Looking at the numerous incidents of terror across the country, one could come to the conclusion that it's slowly becoming a part of our life. Political parties have been using terrorism as a weapon to get back at opponents. While the mudslinging continues, fact remains that almost all incidents of terror, which have taken place across the country in the last year, remain unsolved. (Click the icons for investigation status) The Shahid Bilal Angle The HuJI operative has figured in at least 5 of the 8 cases. Cops in all the terror-hit states feel that Bilal -- who originally hails from Hyderabad -- will be the key person to divulge correct details regarding all these attacks. However, while Pakistan claims he is dead, Indian int

Ahmedabad blasts

TERRIFYING POINTERS FIRST TIME in India that serial terror blasts have occurred on consecutive days. Both low-intensity serial blasts. Even without RDX, these bombs can be lethal as in Jaipur. These blasts are therefore seen as aimed at creating panic. In turn, this has raised anxiety over whether these 2 blasts indicate a bigger blast to come THIRD CONSECUTIVE attack on a BJPruled state after Rajasthan, Karnataka. Experts fear Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal may be next target. BJP has been more strident against terror and often accused Cong of being soft FOURTH TERROR attack in which cycles have been used to plant bombs. Cycles used in Malegoan, Jaipur and the UP court serial blasts. Cycles now seem a preferred vehicle of death as they are inconspicuous FOUR BLASTS in Maninagar, which is Narendra Modi's constituency. One blast outside Dhanvantri Hospital in Bapunagar, a cancer facility run by VHP's Praveen Togadia, himself a doctor FIRST BLASTS take place in

The Rediff Special/Sheela Bhatt in Ahmedabad

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The Rediff Special /Sheela Bhatt in Ahmedabad July 19, 2004 I would like to meet Bachubhai whose son was killed in Kashmir," I request the elderly lady facing me. I am at the door of a modest two-room dwelling in Damarwali chawl, located in the Shahpur area of Ahmedabad, the old part of the city. She looks me over before letting me in and offering me a chair. "He is not in," she says, "He will come soon. I am his wife. Tell me what do you want?" I tell her I have information from the state home ministry about a Gujarati boy named Ayub Bachubhai who had become a jihadi. I was told he was killed in Jammu and Kashmir and that the Intelligence Bureau had identified his dead body before he was buried somewhere in Jammu and Kashmir along the border. I was also told that Ayub's family has received a letter from the Lashkar-e-Tayiba, the Pakistan-based terrorist organisation, informing them about his death. [ The letters are in Urdu and one in Gujarati

The truth is security in India is a joke Krishna Prasad

The truth is security in India is a joke Krishna Prasad July 25, 2008 T hirty-two months after an Indian Institute of Technology professor was killed on the campus of the Indian Institute of Science, 'terror' returned to the pensioners' paradise that no longer is, shortly after lunch on Friday afternoon. The question is not why Bangalore, but why did it take so bloody long? Seriously. Why did it take so long for these smart-assed sons of bitches to set off half-a-dozen bombs just as we were about to hit the sack for our afternoon siesta in our 'sleeper cells', when they could have done it yesterday, or day before, or last week, or last month? The rocket scientists dressed as 'intelligence sources' and 'security experts' are already busy adding one and one and making it eleven: It was a Friday. It happened at 1.30 pm or shortly thereafter. Ergo, you know who was behind them. Those bearded, fez-wearing, menacing-looking guys who procreate like

serial blasts in Ahmedabad

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SHOCK AND AWW: National Security Guards and expert teams have been rushed to Gujarat. Ahmedabad: Seventeen low-intensity blasts rocked Ahmedabad on Saturday evening killing 15 people and injuring over 100 others. Gujarat Urban Development Nitin Patel confirmed that 15 people have died in the blasts. The blasts happened in Maninagar, Sarkej, Isanpur, Narol circle, Bapunagar, Hatkeshwar, Sarangpur Bridge, Sarkhej, Odhav, Sardar Patel Market, Civil Hospital, Juhapura, Ambur Tower Building and Raipur. Except for the blast in Juhapura, all others took place in eastern part of the city and within a radius of 10 kilometer. The first blast took place in Maninagar, which is the Assembly constituency of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. According to initial reports the bomb in Maninagar was planted in a bicycle. There was a second blast in Maninagar area inside the LG Hospital premises below a red-coloured car, which caught fire. There was another blast in Vadilal Sarabhai Hospital. There