At least 29 Maoists were killed on April 16 in an operation by security forces in Kanker district in the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. Three senior cadres of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), which is banned, are allegedly among those killed.
The State police said that was possibly the “biggest encounter ever” in Chhattisgarh, based on the number of casualties inflicted. At a national level, the most recent operation reporting more deaths was a 2018 operation in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, which killed 37 Naxalites.
The operation was conducted by a joint team of the Kanker District Reserve Guard (DRG) and the Border Security Force (BSF) in a forest area under the jurisdiction of the Chhottebetiya police station area of Kanker late on the evening of April 15. They were acting on a tip-off about the presence of senior Divisional Committee (DVC) members of CPI(Maoist).
P. Sundarraj, Inspector General of Police (Bastar Range), shared that there was an encounter during the search operation. Searches have recovered 29 bodies of Maoist cadres, along with a huge cache of arms and ammunition, including AK-47, INSAS, SLR, Carbine 303, he said. Searches are reportedly still underway.
Three jawans were injured in the operation but are reportedly out of danger, according to police.
The BSF has said that Shankar and Lalita, DVC members of the North Bastar division of CPI (Maoist), are believed to be among those killed in the encounter. They jointly carry a reward of around Rs.50 lakh.The operation was launched following various inputs about the movements of the Naxals. “We shared five inputs, including two inputs giving exact location (one input with GR also) of the North Bastar DVC Maoists in the Binagunda area, underlining the fact that it has acted as a permanent camp of the Maoists since April,” a BSF statement noted. Meanwhile, Mr. Sundarraj said that the operation was launched following a tip-off about the presence of North Bastar and Abujhmad Committee division committee members such as Shankar, Lalita, and Raju, but highlighted that names and profiles could only be confirmed post identification of the bodies.
The anti-Naxal operation in Chhattisgarh has intensified after the new BJP government came to power. According to police data, 79 Maoists have been killed so far in 2024, the highest tally since 2019, when 80 were killed in the entire year.
In a post on X, Union Minister Amit Shah wrote that the State and nation will be Naxal-free soon.
“Due to the offensive policy of the government and the efforts of the security forces, Naxalism has been confined to a small area today. Soon Chhattisgarh and the entire country will be completely Naxal-free,” he wrote.
“I congratulate all the security personnel who made this operation successful with their bravery,” he added.
Read our op-ed about the threat that Maoists still pose in modern-day India here.
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