'No inputs to say Naxal attacks grew because of JNU incident'

Government today said there are no specific inputs to suggest that incidents of Naxal violence in the recent past have increased due to the JNU controversy.
Minister of State for Home Haribhai Parathibhai Chaudhary, while putting on record incidents of Naxal violence between February 10 and April 27 this year as compared to the corresponding period last year, said the deaths in these attacks have gone up to 74 as compared to 54 last year and also the total number of such incidents increased to 241 from 211.
"The incidents of Left Wing Extremism violence in LWE-affected states during February 10-April 27, 2016 have increased marginally as compared to the corresponding period of 2015," he said.

The Minister said the incidents during the aforesaid period have increased slightly due to attacks on civilians by the CPI (Maoist).
"No specific inputs are available to suggest that incidents of LWE violence during the period under review have increased due to JNU controversy," he said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.
He was asked whether Maoist incidents have increased after JNU controversy.

Chaudhary said during the said block period this year, 32 Maoist attacks took place on police and security forces resulting in the killing of 15 security forces personnel.
In an another reply, the Minister said 40 security personnel were killed in land mine blasts in Chhattisgarh between 2015 and April 21 this year in 138 incidents.

While rejecting the suggestion that the "weapon holding" of Naxals was superior to that of the security forces, he said "The LWE outfits are using weapons/equipment like LMG, AK 47, SLR, .303 rifles, high explosive grenades and VHF and HF sets for attack on security forces."
The Minister added Maoists have an intelligence network, mainly among villagers in their strongholds.