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Naxal ravages in Orissa : Police claim recovery of looted arms

	February 25, 2008

Orissa Chief Minister Navin Patnaik has said that the state police had recovered about 40 per cent of the weapons looted by Maoists from Nayagarh district of the state. Making a statement in the Assembly in Bhubaneshwar on Feb. 18, he said more than 50 per cent of the ammunition had also been recovered. He said the Union Government has been requested to send five more companies of the CRPF for anti-Naxalite operations.



Police also claimed the death of about 20 Maoists during combing operations. Some policemen also died in the gun battles with fleeing Naxalites. Senior officials admitted that police were finding the job of tracing the Naxalites responsible for attacking Nayagarh police stations and armouries difficult as they were not familiar with the hilly terrain and were also not trained in guerilla warfare.



The Congress said that the Navin Patnaik Government failed to take preventive action to curb Naxalite strikes.



In neighbouring Chhattisgarh, six CRPF jawans and 11 Maoists are reported killed in gun-battles between the security forces and extremists in the Bastar forests on Feb. 18. The Naxalites detonated landmines at several places and opened machinegun fire on the security forces which retaliated.



The Centre has, in the meantime, sanctioned four more India Reserve battalions to be raised by Chhattisgarh this year itself. The state was already raising four India Reserve battalions.





Software engineer nabbed for terror links



Bangalore police have arrested a software engineering sus¬pected to have links with the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Yahya Khan, working in a leading multi-national information technology company was arrested on Feb. 21. He was also allegedly involved in the terrorist attack on the Indian Institute of Science in Dec. 2005.







Delhi, UP on alert



Delhi Police have beefed up security after receiving intel¬ligence inputs regarding some terrorist outfits planning to strike in the city.



“We received an input that some militant outfits are plan¬ning to create terror in the national capital by targeting some prominent locations and based on that we have taken necessary security precautions,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Karnal Singh said.



However, the police has denied any high alert in Delhi. “There is no alert in the city,” said Rajan Bhagat, spokesperson, Delhi police. “We have just increased the security after the input.”



Following Intelligence Bureau inputs of a possible terror attack, security has been stepped up at important places in Uttar Pradesh, including the capital Lucknow.



Sniffer dogs and the anti-bomb squads were pressed into service at busy places like Allahabad High Court as well as the court’s Lucknow Bench, Charbagh railway station and bus stations.



However, ADG, Law and Order, Brij Lal described it as a routine drill.





No interference in law and order : Supreme Court



The Supreme Court has refused to entertain a PIL seeking directions to the Government to expedite execution of the death sentence of Mohammad Afzal, convicted in the 2001 Parliament attack case.



“It is not our duty. It is for the executive to decide how to consider the matter. We cannot pass such a direction,” ob¬served a Bench presided by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan on Feb. 22.



The court was hearing a PIL seeking direction to the Centre not to delay the hanging of Afzal, a Jaish-e-Mohammad activist, whose death sentence was upheld by the SC on August 4, 2005.