News Analysis India

Tag: CRPF

  • Seven injured in grenade attack by terrorists in Srinagar’s Hari Singh High street

    Express News Service

    SRINAGAR:  At least seven civilians were injured when terrorists lobbed a grenade at a vehicle belonging to paramilitary forces at Hari Singh High street in Srinagar on Tuesday.

    While the injured were shifted to the nearby SMHS hospital, a combined search for the terrorists was launched by the police, CRPF and SSB.

    The attack took place despite heightened security in Srinagar as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was present in the city and had earlier addressed party workers in Congress headquarters here.

    A few hours after the grenade attack, police claimed to have arrested a journalist, Adil from Pampore in Pulwama, along with two grenades in the heart of the city.

    “#Journo-#terrorist Adil from Pampore Pulwama #arrested along with 02 #grenades in the heart of #Srinagar City. More arrests are expected. #Investigation going on. Further details shall follow,” tweeted Kashmir police from its official handle.

    Meanwhile, J&K police chief Dilbagh Singh said 57 Kashmiri youth, who travelled to PoK in 2017-18 on valid visas, have joined terrorists and 17 of them have been killed in encounters.

    “They joined terror groups there. Among them, 17 infiltrated in the Valley and were killed in various encounters while 13 are still active in Kashmir,” he said.

  • Terrorists attack CRPF team in J&K’s Shopian, constable injured 

    By PTI

    SRINAGAR: A security force personnel was injured in firing by militants on a road opening party of the CRPF in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday, officials said.

    The ultras attacked the team at Kralcheck while they were carrying out road opening duties, they said.

    Constable Ajay Kumar of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) sustained injuries, they said.

    The area has been cordoned off and search operations have begun, they added.

  • 680 personnel killed themselves in CAPFs in last six years: MoS Home Nityanand Rai in Rajya Sabha

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: A total of 680 personnel of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) like the CRPF and the BSF have committed suicide in the last six years, Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday. Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said the number of personnel who have died due to accidents and encounters during the period — 2015 to 2020 — are 1,764 and 323, respectively.

    According to data provided by the CAPFs and the Assam Rifles, 680 personnel have committed suicides during the last six years, he said replying to a written question. Rai said domestic problems, illness and financial problems could be the contributory factors among others behind the suicides.

  • Assam-Mizoram border standoff: Neutral force CRPF faces flak

    By PTI
    AIZAWL: A day after a violent clash and exchange of fire between police forces of Assam and Mizoram left at least six people dead and over 50 injured, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) deployed along the disputed interstate border on Tuesday received criticism from various quarters for allegedly failing to carry out its “responsibility” as a neutral force.

    A Mizoram minister, the local MLA and the village council chief alleged that the CRPF were unable to prevent “Assam policemen and civilians” from entering the neighbouring state and overrun security forces’ camps inside Mizoram near Veringte on Monday.

    Central paramilitary forces have been deployed along the Mizoram-Assam border by the Central government as neutral forces to defuse tension and maintain peace following a border standoff in August last year.

    While the CRPF are deployed on the Mizoram side, the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) are camped on the Assam side in Lailapur.

    ALSO READ | Full demarcation of border needed for durable solution to Assam-Mizoram dispute: BJP leader

    Mizoram Information and Public Relations Minister Lalruatkima alleged that the paramilitary forces did not restrain armed police personnel and civilians from Assam from intruding into Mizoram territory despite the vulnerability of the situation.

    “The bloody clash could have been averted had CRPF personnel prevented Assam police from entering Mizoram territory and put restrain on them,” Lalruatkima, who is currently camping at Vairengte, told PTI.

    He alleged that unarmed Mizoram police officers were denied protection by CRPF personnel when they rushed to the CRPF base when the firing took place between two state forces on Monday.

    Officials of the CRPF were not available for comment.

    Lalrinsanga Ralte, the MLA of Serlui constituency under which Vairengte falls, accused the CRPF of backing the police personnel and civilians from Assam in entering Mizoram territory.

    He also alleged that Assam police took over the CRPF camp and driven out around 15 personnel of Mizoram police from their duty post located a few meters away from the CRPF camp on the outskirt of Vairengte.

    The MLA claimed that the people of Mizoram have lost faith in the paramilitary force as far as maintaining neutrality and restoring peace on the border areas are concerned.

    ALSO READ | Not an inch of Assam’s land can be encroached upon by Mizoram: CM Himanta Biswa Sarma

    Vairengte joint village council chairman R Lalfamkima also blamed the CRPF for allegedly failing to carry out their responsibility to defuse tension.

    Lalfamkima, who claimed to have been present at the incident site on Monday, alleged that the CRPF personnel did nothing to stop the Assam team from proceeding and avert clashes.

    In a statement on Monday, the Assam government alleged that the Mizoram Police opened fire on its officials and civilians from two dominating high features with automatic weapons, including light machine guns (LMGs).

    However, Mizoram Home Minister Lalchamliana claimed that the state police responded “spontaneously by firing back” at Assam Police after its 200 personnel forcibly crossed a duty post manned by CRPF personnel and indulged in arson and firing and assaulted unarmed people Following the incident, Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and his Mizoram counterpart Zoramthanga and urged them to ensure peace along the disputed border and find an amicable settlement.

    Assam’s Barak Valley districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi share a 164-km border with Mizoram’s three districts of Aizawl, Kolasib and Mamit.

    Tensions along the border with Mizoram in Cachar and Hailakandi districts of Assam have been escalating since October 2020 with frequent incidents of burning of houses and charges of encroachment of land by both sides.

    On October 22, 2020, high-level talks were held under the aegis of the Union Home Ministry where it was decided to maintain the status quo and resolve the dispute through discussions.

    The tension flared up again in February this year and since then people had fled their houses near Gallacherra border outpost after two huts were burnt down.

    After a lull of few months, a grenade was hurled on an Assam government team visiting the border by unknown attackers from Mizoram on July 10, while two back-to-back explosions were heard from across the border in the wee hours on July 11.

    A high-level meeting between officials of both the states, including the chief secretaries and DGPs, was also held in New Delhi earlier this month, on the issue to sort out the dispute.

    Mizoram was a district of Assam before it was carved out as a separate union territory in 1971 after years of insurgency and the district borders did not really matter.

    The border issue cropped up after that as perceptions over where the boundary should be, differed.

    While Mizoram wants it to be along the inner line notified in 1875, which Mizo tribals feel is part of their historical homeland, Assam wants it to be demarcated according to district demarcation done much later.

  • Naxal killed in DRG-CRPF operation in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma 

    By PTI
    SUKMA: A Naxal was killed in an encounter with security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district on Sunday, a police official said.

    The gunfight took place in the wee hours at a forest near Minpa village under Chintagufa police station limits, located about 400 km the state capital Raipur, when a joint team of security forces was out on a search operation, Sukma Superintendent of Police Sunil Sharma told PTI.

    Personnel belonging to the District Reserve Guard (DRG) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were involved in the operation that was launched based on the movement of ultras in the area, considered as a Maoist stronghold.

    The exchange of fire lasted for about one-and-a-half hours following which the rebels escaped into the forest, the official said.

    Later, the body of a male Naxal was recovered from the spot, he said.

    The official said blood stains found at the site indicate that many other Naxals were either injured or killed in the face-off, but their colleagues managed to take them inside the forest.

    Search operation was still underway in the area, he added.

  • Three civilians injured in grenade attacks by terrorists in Srinagar

    By PTI
    SRINAGAR: At least three civilians were injured in a grenade attack by terroristss on security forces in the Barbarshah area of the city on Saturday, police said.

    Terroristss lobbed a grenade at a joint party of the CRPF and J-K Police at Barbarshah falling under Kralkhud police station around 6 pm, a police official said.

    He said the grenade exploded on the roadside, resulting in injuries to three civilians.

    The area has been cordoned off by security forces and a manhunt launched for the assailants.

  • Centre withdraws Z-category VIP security cover of turncoat MLA Mukul Roy

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Z-category VIP security cover of West Bengal politician and MLA Mukul Roy, who recently re-joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) after a brief stint with the BJP, has been withdrawn, official sources said on Thursday.

    They said the Union Home Ministry has directed the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to recall its detachment deployed with the 67-year-old Roy. Roy had last week joined West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led TMC along with his son Subhrangshu in Kolkata.

    Sources said Roy, who won the assembly election as a BJP candidate from Krishnanagar Uttar constituency, had written to the Centre to withdraw the security cover, which has now been given effect to. Roy had quit the TMC after being removed from the post of the party’s national general secretary.

    He had joined the BJP in November, 2017, and was made the party’s national vice president. Soon after, he was accorded a low category Y+ central security cover of the central paramilitary CRPF which was upgraded to the second top level of Z just before the assembly polls in the state that were held in March-April this year.

    He had a contingent of about 22-24 armed CRPF commandos who used to move with him every time he travelled in West Bengal. Sources said the small category security cover being provided to Subhrangshu by another central paramilitary force CISF has also been withdrawn.

    The father-son are now being provided security by the state police.

  • 13 security forces killed in Jammu & Kashmir in 2021

    Express News Service
    SRINAGAR: Though officials have claimed that the security forces have an upper hand against militants and that the militancy is on a decline, as many as 13 security personnel lost their lives to violence by militants this year.  

    Of them, seven were from Jammu and Kashmir Police, three from the CRPF and three from the Army. They were killed in nine separate incidents in the Valley, three of which took place in south Kashmir, three in Srinagar, two in Sopore and one in central Kashmir’s Budgam district.

    According to the statistics, of the 13 security force casualties in Valley in militancy violence this year, only two were killed in encounters. An army man and a Special Police Officer (SPO) of J&K police were killed in two separate encounters.

    The SPO was killed in an encounter with militants in Beerwah area of central Kashmir’s Budgam district on February 17 while the army man was killed in a firefight with militants in south Kashmir’s Shopian district.

    Eleven security men were killed in seven militant attacks across the Valley including in south, central and north Kashmir. An Army soldier was killed and three others were injured in an IED blast carried out by militants at Shamsipora area.

  • Tribals call off protests against CRPF camp in Chhattisgarh’s Silger

    Express News Service
    RAIPUR: The one-month-long protests by tribals against the setting up of a CRPF camp in Silger ended on Saturday with the authorities allaying some of their concerns. It comes a day after Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel agreed to meet the protestors.

    “We told them the camp is not a permanent structure like the police station and it is set up keeping in view the pressing demands of the existing situation in the area. On another demand for a judicial probe into the police firing, we assured them that all evidence and witnesses will be judiciously taken into account during the magisterial inquiry,” IG (Bastar Range) Sunderraj P told The New Indian Express.

    The rising COVID cases among tribals are also seen as the reason for the withdrawal of protests. More villagers have tested positive since the start of the protests. Silger, in an edgy district of Sukma, about 480 km south of Raipur, has been roiled by the massive protest for nearly a month against the setting up of the camp. 

    The district administration and the Bastar Police could not do much to quell the protests. 

    Since the protest site was located in a Maoist stronghold, the state government and the Bastar police administration believed that the rebels had instigated the local adivasi population to agitate against the camp.  Thousands of residents from more than two dozen villages took part in the protests held since May 13. They blocked the main pathway leading to Silger. 

    However, the government stayed firm, saying the camp cannot be shifted. With the tribals alleging high-handedness on the part of security forces and that their land was forcibly taken away to set up the camp, the human rights activists stepped up their campaign.

    The Bastar Police countered saying the land on which the camp was set up was encroached by the local villagers. “We told the chief minister during our meeting that the issue should be resolved democratically. There have been issues of fake encounters, controversial action by the district reserve guards (DRG – raised from local tribal youths and surrendered Maoists),” said Bela Bhatia, a human rights activist.

  • Two cops, as many civilians killed as militants open fire in Jammu and Kashmir’s Sopore town

    By PTI
    RINAGAR: Two policemen and as many civilians were killed and at least three others injured on Saturday when militants opened fire targeting security forces in Sopore town of Baramulla district of Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

    Militants fired upon a joint party of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and police near Main Chowk Sopore in north Kashmir district around noon, they said.

    The officials said in the firing, two police personnel and two civilians were killed.

    At least three others, including a policeman, were injured in the attack, they said.

    The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital from where the injured policeman was taken to the Army’s 92 Base Hospital here, the officials added.

    The security forces have cordoned off the area and further details are awaited, they said.

    #UPDATE | Jammu & Kashmir | Two policemen and two civilians lost their lives in a terrorist attack in Sopore. Two other police personnel are injured. Lashkar-e-Taiba is behind this attack: Kashmir IG Vijay Kumar to ANI(Visual deferred by unspecified time) pic.twitter.com/rWQIGiTX0a
    — ANI (@ANI) June 12, 2021

    Omar Abdullah condemns militant attack

    National Conference leader Omar Abdullah on Saturday condemned the militant attack on security forces in Sopore town of Baramulla district.

    “Terrible news coming in from Sopore. Such attacks must be condemned without reservation. Prayers for the injured & condolences to the families of the deceased,” Abdullah said in a tweet.

    The former chief minister was reacting to the militant attack on security forces in Sopore that has left two police personnel and two civilians dead and several others injured.