Addressing the nation on the occasion of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s birth anniversary, Modi emphasised the need to “identify urban Naxals” who purportedly spread separatism and division

The Naxal movement has such a complex history that several books have been written to understand it. Bastar: The Naxal Story seeks to reduce it to bullet points and stereotypes, observes Deepa Gahlot.

Among four Naxals, were two women, who were also killed when a team of security forces was out on a counter-insurgency operation.

Four Naxals, including two women, and a police official were killed in an exchange of fire in Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh, police said on Saturday. The incident took place on Friday night at Pardhauni village under Manpur police station limits, located over 150 kms from here, when a team of security forces was out on a counter-insurgency operation, Inspector General of Police (Durg range) Vivekanand Sinha said. Acting on a tip-off about the presence of ultras in the village, security forces had launched the operation. "When the patrolling team was cordoning off the area, Naxals suddenly came out of the village and the encounter broke out between the two sides," he said. "Police Sub Inspector (SI) S K Sharma, who was posted as the Station House Officer at Madanwada police station, lost his life in the gunfight," the IG said. Bodies of the four Naxals were recovered from the spot along with an AK47 rifle, an SLR rifle and two 315 bore rifles, he said. Reinforcement .

Four wanted Naxals, including two women- who all carried rewards on their heads- and a police official were killed in an exchange of fire in Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh, police said on Saturday. Terming the killings as huge success for the police, an officer said they managed to eliminate the "high-value targets" who were active on Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra border. The incident took place on Friday night at Pardhauni village under Manpur police station limits, located over 150 kms from Raipur, when a team of security forces was out on a counter-insurgency operation, Inspector General of Police (Durg range) Vivekanand Sinha said. "We got input at 7 pm on Friday that a group of 7-8 armed cadres were camping and cooking food at Pardhauni village, located around six kms away from Manpur police station," Rajnandgaon Superintendent of Police Jitendra Shukla told PTI. Based on the tip-off, a police team of 28 personnel, led by Madanwada police station SHO Shyam Kishore .

An Expert Group in the Planning Commission calls for a more development-led approach to people's resistance, and a renewed commitment by the State to the democratic system. K S Subramanian says a lot of people should read the report.

But New Director General of CRPF rules out scaling down offensive against the rebel forces.

18 constituencies of Naxal-affected Bastar region and Rajnandgaon district will go to polls.

The state has not been able to progress because of BJP's wrong policies, Sonia said.

One Chhattisgarh Police Sub Inspector (SI) lost his life and 4 banned CPI-M Maoists were killed in an encounter near Pardhoni village under Manpur police station limits on Saturday.