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Workers Party leader shot dead in Pabna
A local leader of Workers Party of Bangladesh was shot dead allegedly by outlaws in Atghoria upazila of Pabna this evening. The party blamed the operatives of an extremist group locally known as Sarbahara for the attack, reports our Pabna correspondent.
The deceased was identified as Abdur Rashid, 40, vice president of the upazila unit of Jatiya Krishak Samity, farmers’ wing of the Workers Party. According to party sources and police, miscreants shot Rashid in front of his home at Chachkiya village around 8:30pm, leaving him dead on the spot. Zakir Hossain, Pabna district general secretary of Workers Party, accused the extremists belonging to Sarbahara for the murder, saying they had been threatening Rashid for long.
http://www.thedailystar.net/country/workers-party-leader-shot-dead-pabna-204709
Jharkhand-Bihar Maoist bandh begins tonight
RANCHI: A 24-hour Jharkhand-Bihar bandh called by CPI (Maoist) will begin on Sunday night.The bandh is against January 8 ‘police encounter’ in Bihar’s Aurangabad where five Maoists were gunned down. The Maoist have called it a fake encounter. The outfit has urged its cadre to enforce the bandh in the two states. They have also issued an appeal to the masses for support.The transport services between Jharkhand and Bihar might come under attack during the bandh, intelligence branch sources said.
A large number of goods and public transport vehicles run between the two states, the number grows at night. Maoists, in May 2015, had torched three dozen vehicles defying a bandh in Bihar.Jharkhand police spokesperson S N Pradhan said that heavy vehicles and trains might be targeted.
http://www.nyoooz.com/ranchi/332031/jharkhandbihar-maoist-bandh-begins-tonight
Odisha police kill dreaded Maoist
Sushil, wife in encounter inside forest In one of its biggest successes, Odisha police on Sunday killed dreaded Maoist Sushil alias Basant alias Puttapaka Kumaraswamy of Warangal district and his wife Sony alias Sindri Lingo of Vishakhapatnam district in an encounter on the borders of Angul and Deogarh districts. The encounter took place between anti-Maoist force special operations and Maoists in forest bordering Angul and Deogarh district, police officials said. Based on specific intelligence inputs, the SOG and local police were combing the forests on Angul and Deogarh border, when they came under fire from Maoists this afternoon. “After an exchange of fire we managed to kill Susil and his wife,” said inspector general of (anti-Maoist operations) Soumendra Priyadarsi.
“He is the highest raking Maoist to be killed in an encounter in Odisha.” Sushil was accused in at least 30 cases of murders including 78 cases of Maoist violence in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh since the last 15 years. During last one year, he had killed three persons, including a police informer.
In February last year, Sushil had hacked a villager named Samuel Bodra in Angul district. He carried a cash reward of Rs 20 lakh on his head while his wife Sony has a reward of Rs 5 lakh. Police found an INSAS rifle, a Sten carbine and large quantity of ammunition near the bodies. Puttapaka Kumaraswamy alias Sushil alia Veeranna of Warangal district in Telangana was a State committee member of Odisha State Organising Committee, which was at one point being headed by Sabyasachi Panda. He was divisional committee secretary of Basdhara division of CPI(Maoist) till 2008-09, when he was made divisional secretary of Kalinga Nagar divisional committee, that was created to start Maoist activities in the industrial and mineral rich districts of Jajpur, Keonjhar, Angul and Dhenkanal.
In 2010, he had abducted police ASI Umesh Marandi of Daitari police station of Jajpur district before releasing him 10 days later. Maoists started the Kalinga Nagar division about 2 years after 13 tribals were killed in police firing while protesting their displacement for Tata Steel’s greenfield steel plant in Kalinga Nagar area of Jajpur district in January 2006. As the industrial hub had good road and rail connectivity the Maoists counted the area as a safe corridor from Jharkhand. The Maoists wanted to recruit unemployed youths in the area as well as from Similipal.
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/odisha-police-kill-dreaded-maoist-sushil-wife-in-encounter-inside-forest/
One naxal held after encounter with cops
A CPI (Maoist) cadre was arrested by elite Greyhounds police force after a brief encounter with a group of naxals at Doravaripalle village in the district today. “The Greyhounds came face to face with at least six naxals while conducting combing operation at the village, which ensued a brief exchange of fire. While five out of six ultras managed to flee, one among them was overpowered by the police team,” said Warangal SP (Rural) Ambar Kishore Jha. The naxal was identified as Sarangam and he is being interrogated, the officer said. He said a search is on to trace the naxals.
http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/one-naxal-held-after-encounter-with-cops-116012400661_1.html
Maoist shadow over big cats’ census in Odisha
As the Odisha government is all set to start its big cat count in the first week of February, the authorities are likely to skip the Sunabeda Wildlife Sanctuary that has of late turned into a hot-bed for the Maoist.
http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/maoist-shadow-over-big-cats-census-in-odisha-116012400139_1.html
Narayanpatna youth escapes Maoist attack
Bhubaneswar: A tribal youth of Narayanpatna area in Koraput district was luckily saved from a Maoist attack late on Saturday night. According to sources, a group of Maoists opened fire at one Manu Nachika at Nakitipadara all of a sudden when he was returning home in Laumala village. However, Nachika managed to escape the attack.
http://prameyanews7.com/en/jan2016/odisha/12533/Narayanpatna-youth-escape-Maoist-attack-Maoist-attackOdisha-Odisha.htm
Maoists gun down Aurangabad villager
Aurangabad: Maoists on Friday gunned down one Nanhu Singh Bhokta near Gulab Bigha village under Madanpur police station in Aurangabad district suspecting him to be a police informer. The rebels also left a pamphlet at the spot threatening to eliminate security forces engaged in anti-Maoist operations.Police claimed that the victim never worked as their informer. Sadar SDPO P N Sahu said Bhokta’s wife Sonawa Devi has lodged an FIR with Madanpur police station in connection with the case.
http://www.nyoooz.com/patna/331095/maoists-gun-down-aurangabad-villager
By Women Against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS)
Mob threatens rape survivors tells them to return to village and not lodge an FIR against forces
After four trying days of chasing and pressuring authorities, the determination and resolve of the women of Bellam- Lendra (Nendra) village, Block Usur, Thana Basaguda, has finally paid off. An FIR has been registered against police and security forces by the Bijapur thana for sexual violence including gang rape, dacoity, and for plundering and looting the village.
The FIR registered by the women was in reference to an incident of large-scale violence that was meted out by the police and security forces during a search and combing operation carried out between the 11th and 14th of January in their village. With the help of human rights groups, the aggrieved women from Nendra reached Bijapur on the 18th and immediately petitioned both the Collector and the police authorities to register their complaint. With blatant disregard for the law and in clear violation of Supreme Court orders, the police needlessly stalled the registration of an FIR until the 4th day of the women’s determined pressure.
In their statements recorded before the police and the SDM, the women identified some members of the forces by name, all of whom are surrendered militants. The women also testified to at least 13 gang rapes inflicted by the troops. Security forces consumed livestock, food rations and looted belongings, including money. They also tore up sheets and clothes and killed livestock that they did not eat – clearly reflecting an intention to make survival difficult for people. Threats of burning down houses with children inside were repeatedly made.
In a chance meeting, a three-member team of the National Commission of Women (NCW) present in Bijapur was able to meet with nine of the complainants and the WSS team accompanying them on the 22nd of January. On the 21st however, the administration and police made every effort to keep reports of this incident from reaching the NCW and attempted to prevent the women from meeting them. Finally, the team managed to file a complaint before the NCW carrying details of the incident.
On a troubling note however, while waiting to meet the NCW delegation, a mob of individuals identifying themselves as victims of Maoist violence appeared on the scene. They engaged in a discussion with some of the activists who were part of the team, hurling allegations at them of being “Maoist supporters” for taking up issues that pertained to violence by the forces but not violence by the Maoists. Some mob members questioned the women directly for registering an FIR against the forces and even threatened them, demanding that they leave Bijapur immediately. This altercation was extremely upsetting and intimidating for the 12 complainants, including 8 rape survivors.
The group, that included some ex-Salwa Judum members, seems to have the complete support of the police. They were ferried in what appeared to be police vehicles. Their sudden appearance on the seen, unrestricted by the police in anyway, indicates prior knowledge of the presence and objectives of the team. They followed the team from the meeting with the NCW to the thana (where some paper-work had to be completed for the medical examinations). They continued to blindly defend security forces despite the teams efforts to argue that as victims of violence, people should stand together rather than apart.
The required medical exams were completed on the 22nd, and the women have now returned to their village. In the next few days, another round of testimonies will have to be completed and the police insists on taking them, even though they have already been recorded once by the police and the SDM. Given that the women had already spent five days in Bijapur having left their homes and children, the police have said that they would travel to the village to record testimonies. However as has happened in the past, investigation conducted in the village is carried out by the police who go there accompanied by a convoy of security forces. Given that the accused are the security forces themselves, it is inconceivable that the survivors of violence will be able to participate in such a process free from fear and intimidation. Investigations must be sensitive to the survivors and have to be carried out with care and empathy. Under Section 157 of CrPC, investigations in case of rape must take place at a place of the survivors choosing. Given recent developments, we are concerned for the safety of the women and demand that further investigation take place in an atmosphere of security and comfort for the women. They must be assured that they will be free from intimidation from any source – the police or private groups. In addition we demand that investigation in such cases, and in particular this case, be moved from the accused police to an independent investigating agency, in order to ensure fairness and transparency.
TIKKO militants in Istanbul firebombed a building used by AKP supporters to hold fund raisers for Sunni sectarian fascist groups in Syria including Al Nusra Front (Al Qaeda in Syria) and Sham al-Ahrar. The communique noted “We will apply the necessary punishment to the criminals and the state”.
Via New Turkey
Denial of dignity and rights
The health of 68-year-old political prisoner Kobad Ghandy, six years into his incarceration, is deteriorating rapidly, even as proceedings in the cases slapped against him, barring one, are yet to begin. Ghandy is suffering from a host of health problems that include irritable bowel syndrome, dizziness, nausea, a severe kidney problem for which he has been receiving treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences on and off, a serious heart condition, and an abnormal dropping of pulse rate for which he has been advised to have a pacemaker fitted.
Lodged in the High Risk Ward of Tihar Jail, he is under severe stress and has appealed for a speedy trial or release on bail for treatment. In September, on the basis of the Jail Superintendent’s report that Ghandy was a follow-up case of hypertension, decreased vision, an ingrowing toenail with keloid, benign prostatic hyperplasia, and cervical spondylitis, an Additional Sessions judge observed that his condition had visibly deteriorated during the trial of the case and granted him an interim bail for three months. But he continues to be in jail because there are several cases pending against him. Before Ghandy could produce the bail bond as required by the court, police teams from other States are waiting to rearrest him.
According to an affidavit filed with the Supreme Court, the Andhra Pradesh government revealed that there is a total of 14 cases against him—in that State, Telangana, Delhi, Surat, Patiala, West Bengal and Jharkhand. He is being charged under various, overlapping sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The Delhi case is in its final stages, and Ghandy is set to face serial trials across the country on its culmination. He is being charged with being a central committee and politburo member of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), a banned organisation, and looking after the outfit’s international department, the subcommittee on mass organisation, central publishing bureau and the south-western regional bureau…
http://www.frontline.in/cover-story/denial-of-dignity-and-rights/article8017713.ece
Two women among four Naxals held in C’garh
Four Naxals, including two women, who were carrying cash reward on their heads, were today arrested from the Maoist hotbed of Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh, police said. The cadres, who were allegedly involved in an attack on a police anti-landmine vehicle in Dantewada last year, were apprehended from Kirandul police station area, Dantewada Superintendent of Police Kamlochan Kashyap told PTI. The Naxals had blown up an anti-landmine vehicle on Cholnar-Kirandul road in Dantewada on April 13, 2015 killing five policemen and injuring eight others.
Those arrested were identified as Malangir Local Operation Squad (LOS) Commander Anita alias Mitki (22), Nelnar LOS member Rajo Vekko (25) and two janmilitia members- Sannu (30) and Raju Mandavi (25), he said. Anita was carrying a reward of Rs three lakh on her head, while Rs one lakh was announced for the arrest of another woman naxal Rajo, he added. “All of them were involved in other criminal incidents, including attacks on police party, damaging railway tracks and roads, torching vehicles engaged in mining and construction works, in the region,” he said. Their interrogation was on, he added.
http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/two-women-among-four-naxals-held-in-c-garh-116012300711_1.html
CRPF jawan injured in IED blast in Dantewada
One Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan was injured in an IED (Improvised Explosive Devise) explosion in Maoist insurgency-hit Dantewada district of South Chhattisgarh on Saturday. “Janaradan Sonawane, a jawan of CRPF’s 111 battalion, was injured when a pressure IED (planted by Maoists) exploded near Sameli village of Dantewada at around 10 am today. The injured jawan was a part of a team which was out to provide security for the construction of a road in the area,” Mr.Dinesh Pratap Upadhyay, the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of CRPF Dantewada range told The Hindu. “His right foot is gone and there are severe injuries on his left leg,” added Mr.Upadhyay. The injured jawan is likely to be airlifted to Raipur for treatment.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/crpf-jawan-injured-in-ied-blast-in-dantewada/article8144898.ece
Former Sarpanch killed in Jamui district
Maoist rebels killed a former Sarpanch of Harni panchayat in the district today by accusing him of being a police informer. Police said here that extremists of outlawed CPI (Maoist) slit open the throat of former Sarpanch, Dinesh Tanti resulting in his on the spot death. The headless body of Tanti was recovered from the ‘jungle’ of Panchbhur. Sources said that extremists of outlawed CPI (Maoist) had kidnapped the former Sarpanch from Tarakant village in the district. Family members of Tanti had lodged an FIR in this connection last night itself and police had launched a search operation to find out his whereabouts. Naxalites had also left a leaflet at the spot, accusing former Sarpanch of being a police informer. His motorcycle was also found there. Police have launched a massive manhunt to nab culprits.
http://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/India/20160123/2776898.html
Centre push for joint Maoist combat
Union Ministry for Home Affairs (UMHA) adviser K. Vijay Kumar stressed on better interstate cooperation to combat Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) effectively along the borders of Jharkhand and its neighbouring Naxalite-hit states, reports The Telegraph. During a four-hour meeting at the Jharkhand Police headquarters in Ranchi on January 22, Kumar is understood to have directed state Police and paramilitary forces to “reactivate” the “Operational Area” (OA) strategy and set up “Interstate Joint Task Force” to crack down on Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) and other rebel groups, who have been using porous borders to give security personnel the slip.
“I am happy with outcomes of anti-Naxalite operations in Jharkhand. The meeting mainly discussed plans for better interstate coordination and better intelligence network. For example, we have faced problems in tri-junction bordering areas (where borders of three states merged). Thus, cooperation among state police is the need of the hour,” Kumar said after the meeting without divulging further details.
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/detailed_news.asp?date1=1/23/2016&id=12#12
INTERVENTION OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PROLETARIAN FEMINIST MOVEMENT
As comrades and women, we have to enthusiastically hail the role that thousands of women are playing, showing heroism and resolution within the people wars in Peru, Nepal and Turkey, etc.. We express our full revolutionary solidarity and support to the very many women who, in the revolutionary and mainly in the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist organizations, show an extraordinary determination, fighting in the front-lines, carrying out the strongest forms of resistance against those political-economic regimes and systems that often practice on the women themselves the fiercest repression, tortures and every kind of cruelty.
Both outside and inside the prisons, within the revolutionary struggles and people’s wars, women bring evidence of being able to express a determination, heroism and a revolutionary radicalism that has no comparison. All this is the proof that the women’s role is not only important but rather decisive and necessary in a revolutionary perspective.
The analysis of conditions in our and other imperialist countries, together with the historical summation of recent movements and the teachings we have to draw from the past struggles and revolutions, inevitably leads us to state that a Party that really wants to be revolutionary, cannot put the female question in a back seat, reducing it into an appendix of the class struggle, as a merely superstructural problem.
At the same time, an irreplaceable lesson that we draw from the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is that no revolution really can be such without a “revolution in the revolution” that shakes off all the material and ideological fetters that determine still today the condition of double oppression of the proletarian women all over the world.
In the same way, examples of both past and present show us what revolutionary importance the role of the women has in the revolutionary struggle and people’s wars, when the double oppression consciousness changes into rebellion.
In Italy, like in other imperialist countries, we witness the further outbreak of women’s oppression, a return to a modern Middle Ages, that, in various forms and using scientific ideological and cultural tools, re-propose to women a reality of inferiority and subordination. They are aiming at the central position of family, the usual cage of oppression and mistreatment; they are launching anti-abortion campaigns, agitating the most backward Christian fundamentalist values; they are legalizing sexual violence; they are leaving women out of the labour market, in which women are doomed to super-exploitation, unemployment, precariousness, “black jobs”, and blackmail.
We speak about a Revolutionary Proletarian Feminist Movement
While we use the word feminism we are conscious how much misused and at the same time misunderstood it can be within the revolutionary and MLM movement, where this word is often unpopular and opposed because of the bourgeois and reformist features it has been assuming over the years. However, for us to speak about feminism means to state that the leading role and the revolutionary determination of women are necessary and they cannot be set aside.
When we say feminism, we raise and claim all the hard struggle, the rebellion, the breakthroughs that women have had and have to carry out against the actual exploiting and oppressive bourgeois system. We speak about feminism because there will not be emancipation for the proletarians without a deep-rooted revolution in the role of women; there will not be revolution without liberation… without the breaking off of all shackles.
We speak about proletarian feminism, in opposition of the various forms of bourgeois and petit bourgeois feminism. We know that are the material conditions, the class they belong to, that distinguishes individuals more than their gender. We do not believe a female specificity exists as an abstract problem of gender, prescribing the real social-economical conditions that materially determine their existences.
Unlike bourgeois women, proletarian women have no interest in maintaining the present state of things unchanged, to carve out seats, rights and opportunities inside bourgeois society.
We speak about revolutionary proletarian feminism because there can not be any achievement for women through reforms that leave the structure and production relationships in the bourgeois society unchanged. The liberation/emancipation of women has to be achieved within the deep-rooted revolutionary transformation of society by means of class struggle.
The Revolutionary Proletarian Feminist Movement is a weapon so that women advance and integrate themselves in constituting the Maoist Communist Party as a Party of a new type, and in revolutionary warfare as powerful force of liberation. The development of Revolutionary Proletarian Feminist Movement is the application of MLM to the concrete reality of the women’s movement in an imperialist country. The Revolutionary Proletarian Feminist Movement is a weapon of the “revolution in the revolution” to defeat the imperialist beast and the revisionist reformism and to advance toward socialism and Communism.
GLORY TO COMRADE NORA!
GLORY TO ALL THE WOMEN MARTYRS OF REVOLUTION!
UNCHAIN THE FURY OF WOMEN AS A POWERFUL FORCE OF THE REVOLUTION!
LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTIONARY PROLETARIAN FEMINIST MOVEMENT!
IT IS RIGHT TO REBEL!
LONG LIVE THE WORLD PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION!
LONG LIVE THE MAOIST COMMUNIST PARTY!
HC grants interim bail to five Maoists
The Madras High Court has granted interim bail to five Maoists, including a Kerala couple, who were arrested in Coimbatore in May last year by the Q branch police with a condition to appear before the Investigating Officer every day for a month. Top Maoist leader Roopesh, head of Western Ghats Zonal Committee of CPI (Maoist) and four others, including his wife Shyna, were arrested by the Q branch police on May 4, 2015 near Karumathampatti, Coimbatore.
Later they were detained under the National Security Act. On September 29, 2015, the Principal Sessions Court, Coimbatore, dismissed the bail petitions moved by all the five detainees. Assailing the order, the Maoists approached the High Court. Admitting the pleas, Justice C.T. Selvam on Wednesday granted interim bail to all the five persons and directed them to appear before the investigating officer every day for a month and thereafter whenever summoned by the investigating agency.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/hc-grants-interim-bail-to-five-maoists/article8137257.ece
Joint operation to tackle Maoist menace in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala
An inter-State meeting of senior forest personnel in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala held at Bandipura in Karnataka, held after an interval of three years, decided to intensify joint operations to tackle the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) activities in the forest areas of the region, Pramod G. Krishnan, Chief Conservator of Forest, (Wildlife, Palakkad), said, reports The Hindu on January 22. The meet offered all assistance to Police Forces in combing operations to tackle Maoist menace. As part of this, anti-poaching activities information would be exchanged each other.
http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/detailed_news.asp?date1=1/22/2016&id=16#16
Man ‘kidnapped’ from Deoghar held with naxal operative in Jamui
A young man, who was believed to have been kidnapped from Deoghar allegedly by a Bihar Janata Dal (United) MLA, has been arrested by the Jamui police in Bihar along with a naxal sub-zonal commander in the area. The police said that the youngster was related to the sub-zonal commander, who was allegedly planning to murder the MLA named earlier in the kidnapping case. According to Deoghar police, Sachin Verma, in his early 20s, son of Mahendra Verma, had gone missing from his house in Mohanpur area of Deoghar on January 17.
A missing report was lodged at Mohanpur police, the next day. On January 20, his father gave a written complaint against JD (U) MLA from Belhar (in Banka), Girdhari Yadav, following which a kidnapping case was registered. While Sachin was involved in preparing documents like adhaar card, his father was involved in agriculture. On Thursday, Jamui police, in a joint operation with the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), arrested area sub-zonal commander of CPI (Maoist), Praveen Da alias Gopal alias Alok, besides others.
Fire arms and ammunitions, besides some incriminating material, was also recovered. A case in this regard was lodged at Lakshmipur police station in Jamui. Sachin was also among those arrested. Praveen was from Chanan area in Banka district of Bihar. Deoghar Superintendent of Police A Vijay Laxmi said: “There is no case of kidnapping. The missing youth has been arrested by the Jamui police, along with some suspected naxal operatives. We are verifying as to why they complained against the MLA. Further investigations are on.” Jamui SP Jayant Kant said: “The kidnapped boy is said to be brother of the arrested accused. In fact, the accused have told us that they planned to murder the JD (U) MLA, who was named in the kidnapping. We are suspecting that the two parties have some old enmity. However, the exact reason is being verified.”
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/man-kidnapped-from-deoghar-held-with-naxal-operative-in-jamui/
Greyhounds to begin operations in city soon
The anti-naxal force greyhounds will start combing operations in the city in the few Days ago .The elite force was created to flush out Maoists in the Tribal Agency areas, hilly terrains and trained for jungle warfare. The Port City has such terrain close to the main venue of the International Fleet Review ( IFR) on February four to nine and the accommodation to the VIPs. Hence, the decision to have them carries out combing operations in the city. Official sources said here today, operation will be in progress for almost two weeks for ensuring security for the VIPs and foreign delegates. Apart from Greyhounds, other elite forces like Octopus, Cobra, CRPF, RAW, and armed forces, including Special Protection Guards (SPG) will be present in the city for the event, ensuring security for VIPs and foreign delegates.
http://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/India/20160122/2776169.html
Seven naxals held in Chhattisgarh
Seven naxals, three of them carrying reward of varying amounts on their heads, were arrested from insurgency-hit Sukma district today, police said. “The cadres were apprehended by a joint team of security forces near Chingavaram village under Gadiras police station limits,” Sukma Additional Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh told PTI. As a part of the ongoing anti-naxal operations in the region, a joint squad of CRPF’s 230th battalion, District Reserve Group (DRG) and district forces were carrying out a search operation towards Matemarka, Munga and Chingavaram villages, located around 500 kms away from the state capital Raipur, he said. On reaching near Chingavarm, they rounded up seven suspects who during interrogation admitted to their involvement with the outlawed naxal movement, the officer said.
The ultras have been identified as Madvi Bapu (30), Madvi Linga (30), Madvi Hidma (35), Podiyami Kosa, Madvi Handa (40), Madvi Muda (35) and Madvi Hadma (23). While Hidma was carrying a reward of Rs 1,000, Handa and Kosa Rs 2,000 each. According to police, the naxals were allegedly involved in activities like damaging roads, torching vehicles, and dropping Maoist pamphlets in the region.
http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/seven-naxals-held-in-chhattisgarh-116012201118_1.html
Officials from five states to sign agreements to deal with left-wing extremism
In a meeting of top officials from five states – Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha and Chhattisgarh – here on Friday, it was decided that formal agreements would be signed at the top level between them to deal with left-wing-extremism (LWE), particularly on the areas around their common borders. The meeting was headed by Senior Advisor (LWE), Ministry of Home Affairs K Vijay Kumar at the Jharkhand police headquarters. Officials from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Intelligence agencies, besides many IGs, DIGs and other officials also attended the meeting.
Additional Director General of Police (Operations) and Jharkhand police spokesperson S N Pradhan said that the idea behind signing of agreements was to firm up the arrangements that have been existing since long regarding sharing of intelligence, common targets, movement of forces etc. “There was some sort of arrangements along these lines for a couple of years in the past. Then, the arrangement gradually broke away. We are trying not only to revive it, but make it a reality down to the lowest level,” he said. Inter-state cooperation and sharing of intelligence on LWE has been a long recommended step towards dealing with naxal menace.
However, owing to jurisdictional issues, separate chain of commands and other operational problems, the LWE activists manages to get safe haven in other states, when the police force of a particular state takes up an operation, officials said. Pradhan said that, for instance, there is a system of sending an officer from one state to another and vice versa to coordinate and share intelligence. “But, particularly in the border areas, there needs to be a set mechanism at all levels. The agreement would be signed to give a proper shape to the inter-state coordination right from the DIG-to-DIG level down to the police station-to-police station level. Issues like allowing movement of forces from one state to another would also be looked into,” he said.
Coordination with CRPFs, which often carries out joint operations with the local police, will also be strengthened. In due course, for instance, the Jharkhand police would sign agreements with West Bengal police, Bihar police and Odisha police to patrol and improve the quality of operations against naxals in the border areas, added Pradhan.
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/officials-from-five-states-to-sign-agreements-to-deal-with-left-wing-extremism/
Chidambaram model to combat Maoists in Jharkhand
RANCHI: In a fresh strategy to combat Maoists, police have decided to revive former union home minister P Chidambaram’s unified command model for anti-Maoist operations. The unified command strategy, a police officer said, is currently an overlooked practice in the war against Maoists. Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked police chiefs during Gujarat DGPs conference in December last to bring back the focus on unified command strategy, a tested operational exercise. On Friday the Chidambaram model was discussed at Jharkhand police headquarters where senior police officers from Maoist-hit Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar – Jharkhand’s neighbors – gathered to find ways to stop Maoists from exploiting the poorly policed junctions on inter-state borders.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ranchi/Chidambaram-model-to-combat-Maoists-in-Jharkhand/articleshow/50686001.cms
Arms cache recovered in Chhattisgarh
A huge cache of arms mostly barrels used in manufacturing guns was recovered from forests of Chhattisgarh’s insurgency-hit Rajnandgaon district, police said today. Acting-on a tip off, as many as 39 barrels of 12 bore guns were recovered from Mangikholi forests under Bortalav police station area last evening by a joint team of security forces, Rajnandgaon Superintendent of Police Sundarraj P told PTI. Tagging the recovery as a “major” success, the SP said, police have foiled naxals’ evil strategy to manufacture guns to harm security personnel.
During interrogation, a recently arrested woman naxal Manisha had revealed about the location of a dump of materials for making guns hidden in the forests of Kandhurra based on which search operations were on in the jungles of Kandhurra for the past few days, he said. A joint team of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and district force was cordoning off forests of Mangikholi last evening when they spotted barrels hidden behind shrubs, the SP added.
http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/arms-cache-recovered-in-chhattisgarh-116012200794_1.html
Bijapur. 18th January, 2016.
Reports from Nendra and Pedda Jojer in Bijapur, and Kunna in Sukma reveal a new and brutal wave of systematic violence being carried out by security forces in South Chhattisgarh. On the one hand Chhattisgarh police proudly announces the launch of new operations and tactics, boasting of better coordination among forces and improvement in training. On the other, we have the bold but lesser heard voices of people who inhabit the lands to which the police is “laying siege” – revealing the bitter truth of the war the State continues to wage on its people.
The Coordination of Democratic Rights Organization (CDRO), a nation-wide platform of rights organizations, together with Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) and CPDR (Tamil Nadu) conducted a fact-finding in these areas between the 15th and 17th of January. Here are some of our findings.
In a chilling repeat of the violence we saw in Peddagellur and around, forces in large numbers entered Bellam Nendra, in the Basaguda thana area on the 12th of January 2016. They stayed for two nights – looted homes, used up food and rations, beat up several women and sexually assaulted several others. A young woman was covered with a mosquito net and gang-raped, another mother and her young daughter were forced into their homes and simultaneously raped by 5 security personnel. They hurled abuses and issued threats of extreme violence. There were also two rounds of blind firing into the forests surrounding the village.
At the same time, further away in Sukma district, forces in large numbers entered Kunna and surrounding villages between the 12th and 14th of January. Fearing the inevitable and baseless violence inflicted upon them by paramilitary forces, most of the men of the village fled into the forest. Once again, in what seems to be a part of the ethos of combing operations, those who remained were beaten up brutally and women were sexually assaulted. 5 women and 22 men were rounded up and taken to a camp in the area. After the intervention of human rights activists, the 22 men arrested were released. The five women who were picked up were stripped and brutally sexually assaulted. Besides these 27 persons, two of the women who were also assaulted in the village are now in hospital for medical care. Lalu Sodhi, from the village Kormagondi was brutally beaten up by the forces on the 13th of January who succumbed to his injuries the next day on the 14th January. Joga Sodi, who too was brutally tortured, is unable to walk now.
During their visit to the area, the team also learned of an encounter that had occurred in Chinna Jojer, Gangalur thana, Bijapur through local newspapers. On visiting the area, we found that what was reported to be an ‘encounter’ in which four Maoists were killed, was in fact a cold-blooded murder of villagers, including a 13 year old child.
Six young people from around Pedda Jojer were on their way to the market at Reddi early on 15th morning to purchase their daily needs, when they were fired at by paramilitary forces hiding in the forest. Majji Badram aged 20, Oyam Munna (24), Oyam Tulasi (13) of Pedda Jojer village accompanied by Madkam Pandu (20) from Akuwa Village and two other children aged 9 and 12 were among those who were fired at. Four of them were killed instantly, while two young girls managed to escape. The team also found that the bodies had bullet wounds behind the ears and forehead indicating that the group were shot at from close range. There was no panchnama conducted at the site of the crime, and the troops did not inform the families of the deceased. Instead, they had to make their way to the thana and demand the release of the bodies. District administration and police are yet to come out with any response to the incident.
The remarkable similarity in scale, magnitude and nature of these operations which have been conducted in places distanced not only by several kilometers but also in varied topographical locations marks the beginning of a new wave of State-sponsored violence. Rampant looting, blind firing, brutal beating, cold-blooded murder and sexual assault seem to have become a part of the fabric of routine combing and search operations, revealing the ways in which extreme forms of violence have been institutionalized by the State and it’s security forces.
In light of this new wave of terror being unleashed by the State, we demand:
Stop ‘Operation Green Hunt’ at once.
Immediate action against the gross atrocities committed by the security forces of the State under Sections 294, 302, 323, 354 (B), 376, 395 of the Indian Penal Code, POCSO (2012) and the SC/ST Atrocities Act (1989).
Immediate provision of fair compensation to those affected by State violence.
Immediate withdrawal of all paramilitary troops from the Bastar region.
Contact:
Ashish Gupta, Chilaka Chandrashekhar
Convenors, CDRO
The following post comes via Throw Out Your Books a useful source of English language material on the Japanese left-Signalfire
On January 18th, police raided a small apartment in Kita ward in Tokyo, where they uncovered hints on the whereabouts of Masaaki Ōsaka. Now aged 66, Ōsaka was an activist in the far-left radical group Chūkaku-ha and is named as a suspect in the death of a police officer during a riot in Shibuya 45 years ago.
Police announced that the apartment was a Chūkaku-ha ajito, or secret base, and that they believe Ōsaka is had been living there until a few years ago. This is the first known raid on a place where he is suspected to have resided. Ōsaka has been on the lam the longest among the most-wanted fugitives in Japan. His image remains a common sight on wanted posters at police substations, especially in Tokyo.
Police perennially make announcements about Ōsaka as they find the crumbs left behind on his fugitive trail. In 2012, an ajito was exposed in Tachikawa City, west Tokyo, and items seized from it revealed possibilities that Ōsaka was hiding out somewhere in Kita ward. The raid on January 18th was carried out by police on suspicion of fraudulent signed private documents, and security police are now checking if there were any items left behind that could provide clues on Ōsaka’s current status. (This is a common tactic, raiding locations or arresting radical activists on minor charges that it is hoped will lead to other pieces of information.)
During the January 18th raid, two men in their forties and fifties who resisted the search were arrested on suspicion of interfering with police officials carrying out an investigation. The police say they are members of a “revolutionary army” secret wing of the radical organisation that carries out terrorist activities and supports fugitives. They are both remaining silent in police custody (the usual Japanese New Left tactic of kanmoku) and the Chūkaku-ha organ, Zenshin, has yet to make a public comment. (This post is based solely on mainstream media reports.)
Ōsaka is a suspect in the death of a young police officer during the so-called Shibuya Riot Incident on November 14th, 1971. The riot escalated out of a protest against the continued occupation of Okinawa by United States (at the time, the bases in Okinawa were heavily used as part of the United States war machine operating in Vietnam). It came at the end of the most intense series of large-scale protests in Japan, and in a year that saw multiple bombings and “guerrilla” activity by both radical factions and also non-sectarians. Ōsaka is accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail that set the officer on fire.
Ōsaka was one of seven Chūkaku-ha activists named as suspects in the killing; all the others have been arrested and charged. Among them is Fumiaki Hoshino, who was arrested in 1975 and remains in prison on a full life sentence, though the evidence to link him to the actual death of the police officer is based on police confessions on six other activists (three of whom were minors) that were later retracted. His campaigners have been fighting for a retrial for many years, as well as two civil suits over “lost” evidence and censored letters between Hoshino and his wife. They regularly hold demonstrations, including in Tokushima around the prison where Hoshino is held.
Since late 2014 there has been a conspicuous resurgence in police raids on Chūkaku-ha facilities and arrests of activists, though none have been charged as yet.
The launch of the Palestinian Documentation Center in Rome, Italy was announced on January 6 with the publication of its website in Italian. The site is also available in English and will soon be available in Arabic.
The site is a repository for the archive of Palestinian political and cultural historical documents that is being developed in Rome. The center aims to preserve Palestinian memory and narrative, which has been an essential product of the struggle of the Palestinian people’s struggle over the past 70 years. The Zionist project seeks to erase Palestinian history and memory, as evidenced in the systematic destruction and looting of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s Research Center and archives in the invasion of Beirut in 1982.
The Center will not only archive materials but also will work on public events and activities, and will launch several upcoming initiatives to encourage historical study of social and political projects related to the Palestinian cause.
The Center’s website is accessible at: http://centrodocumentazione.ps/
The “Palestinian Documentation Center” began its activities in December 2015.
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