Search Results for: Maoists

Sri Lanka elected Anura Kumara Dissanayake as its new president on September 21, marking the first time in the country’s history that a candidate outside the two major political parties has won the presidency. Dissanayake, representing the National People’s Power (NPP) coalition, defeated candidates from the long-dominant United National Party (UNP) and Sri Lanka Freedom [...]

Indian security forces killed at least 29 left-wing extremists called Naxals, or Maoists, in the Indian Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected state of Chhattisgarh’s sensitive region Bastar this week. The Indian states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Kerala are all considered LWE affected, albeit to varying degrees. [...]

The police in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh reported Monday the arrest of a schoolteacher on charges of supporting Maoists. The arrest led to protests by the local people, including students. 25-year-old school teacher Ramlal Nureti was arrested in Chhattisgarh after being apprehended from Karekatta village. The arrest was made based on his alleged involvement in [...]

In a joint statement signed last Thursday but announced Tuesday, the government of the Philippines and communist group the National Democratic Front (NDFP) have reached an agreement to reset peace negotiations in an attempt to end a 50 year long conflict. The agreement was facilitated by Norway and signed in Oslo by Philippines Special Advisor [...]

A clash between thousands of monarchist protestors and police took place in Kathmandu, Nepal on Thursday. The confrontation, marked by the use of rattan sticks, tear gas and water cannons, resulted in the forceful dispersal of the demonstration. This event underscores tensions between pro-monarchy and pro-republic factions in the Himalayan nation. Initially peaceful, the demonstration [...]

UN Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor condemned on Monday the nearly decade-long detention of former Delhi University professor and human rights activist GN Saibaba, who was arrested back in 2014 over his suspected links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). Lawlor called upon Indian authorities to release Saibaba from detention, calling his continued detention [...]

Jony Mainaly is JURIST’s Staff Correspondent in Nepal. She files this from Kathmandu. In the past month, Nepal has witnessed a shocking but not surprising series of events in the aftermath of the federal and provincial elections held on November 20. The events were shocking because such acts yet again scorned rule of law. But [...]

The Supreme Court of India has dismissed the National Investigating Agency’s (NIA) application to vacate the order that allowed activist Gautam Navlakha’s shift to house arrest from Taloja prison in Mumbai, where he had been detained in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case since April 2020. On August 28, 2018, Navlakha was arrested by Mumbai [...]

Jony Mainaly is JURIST’s Staff Correspondent in Nepal.  She files this from Kathmandu.  This past Monday, October 31, a writ petition against Nepal’s Election Commission was filed in the Supreme Court of Nepal after the Commission attempted to crackdown (Nepali) on the ‘No, Not Again’ campaign— a social media campaign that calls for boycotting tried [...]

The Supreme Court of India Saturday ruled that human rights activist Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba must remain in prison despite procedural failures in his trial, overruling the Bombay High Court. In its 101-page judgment, the Bombay High Court argued Saibaba is entitled to a retrial because the sanction for his prosecution was invalid at the time [...]