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Toll in Chhattisgarh’s biggest anti-Maoist op increases to 31

ByS Kareemuddin, , Bastar
Oct 06, 2024 12:59 AM IST

Of the 31 slain Maoists, authorities have identified 16 who carried a cumulative bounty of ₹1.30 crore.

Three more Maoists were found at the site of Friday’s encounter between security forces and Maoists in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh on Saturday morning, officials said, taking the toll in the largest such operation against the Left-wing extremists this year to 31.

Security personnel shift the mortal remains of the Maoists to a government hospital in Dantewada district. (PTI)
Security personnel shift the mortal remains of the Maoists to a government hospital in Dantewada district. (PTI)

Of the 31 slain Maoists, authorities have identified 16 who carried a cumulative bounty of 1.30 crore, inspector general of police (Bastar range) Sundarraj P said.

The operation came days before Union home minister Amit Shah is scheduled to chair a review meeting of eight LWE-affected states on October 7. The chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Telangana, Odisha, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh are likely to attend the meeting in New Delhi, an official statement said.

“Bodies of three more Maoists were recovered this morning from the dense forest where the encounter took place on Friday,” the IGP P said, adding that searches were still going on in the forest of Abhujmaad on the Narayanpur-Dantewada inter-district border.

“With this, the Maoists toll from the encounter has risen to 31. While the identities of the deceased are yet to be confirmed, it appears that they were members of the PLGA (People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army) Company No. 6, Platoon 16, and the Maoists’ East Bastar Division,” he added.

Thirteen of the slain Maoists were women, the IGP said. Of them, Niti alias Urmila, a woman member of Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), which is the strongest formation of Maoists, was carrying a reward of 25 lakh on her head, he said. She was the fourth DKSZC member gunned down in the state this year, he added.

She was heading the east Bastar division of Maoists, which is active at the junction of Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bastar, Bijapur and Kondagaon districts, he said.

The DKSZC handles Maoists’ activities in Bastar region in Chhattisgarh besides parts of adjoining Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana and Maharashtra, Sundarraj said.

Two other key cadres were identified as Suresh Salaam and Meena Madkam, divisional committee members ( DVC) of CPI ( Maoist) who were carrying rewards of 8 lakh each. Eight cadres have been identified as members of Peoples’ Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA) company no. 6 and five as area committee members of Maoists.

The encounter took place at around 1pm on Friday when a joint team of District Reserve Guard (DRG) and Special Task Force (STF) was out on an anti-Naxal operation.

Giving details about the operation, the IGP said that on Thursday night the security forces were sent to jungle based on intelligence input about the presence of top Maoists from East Bastar Division of CPI (Maoist), members of PLGA Company- 6, Indravati Area Committee of CPI(Maoist) and Platoon 16 of Maoists.

“A joint team including District Reserve Guard (DRG) of Dantewada, of Narayanpur along with a team of special task force (STF) was sent to jungles. Despite heavy rainfall the team reached the spot and fought with the Maoists,” said the IG.

One DRG jawan, who was injured in the operation, is undergoing treatment in Raipur and is in stable condition.

Dantewada Superintendent of Police Gaurav Rai said the main objective of police is to protect people living in the inaccessible forests and difficult geographical conditions at the junction of five districts where the Maoists’ east Bastar division operates.

This is the highest number of fatalities suffered by Maoists in a single operation since Chhattisgarh was formed 24 years ago. The operation comes five months after security forces killed 29 Maoists, including senior cadres, in an encounter in Kanker district.

Along with the bodies, a cache of weapons, including an AK-47 rifle, one SLR (self-loading rifle), one INSAS rifle, one LMG rifle and one .303 rifle were also recovered from the encounter spot, the IGP said.

Chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai, who assumed office in December last year, said, “Our forces have achieved great success. 31 Naxals have been killed and this time our soldiers have broken the previous record of 29. Therefore, we congratulate our soldiers, salute their courage and certainly one day Naxalism will end here and peace will be established in Chhattisgarh.”

Union minister Shah has consistently maintained that the government will soon wipe out left wing extremism. After chairing a high-level inter-state coordination meeting in Raipur in August, Shah said the country will be free of left-wing extremism (LWE) by March 2026 as the fight against the red ultras has reached the final stages.

With this latest encounter, 188 Maoists have been gunned down by the security forces in separate gun battles in the Bastar region comprising seven districts, including Dantewada and Narayanpur, so far this year.

Since December, 2023, there has been a clear uptick in aggression from security forces, which have created 17 new forward camps in what were thus far thought to be core Maoist-controlled areas.

This includes areas inside Abhujmaad, a 4,000-square-kilometre expanse of forests that straddles Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. Abhujhmaad is an amalgamation of the Gondi words “Abujh” and “Maad” that translates to the “hills of the unknown” — an area that is yet unmapped by the government of India.

Several attempts at conducting preliminary surveys in the region have taken place since 2017, but each has been stymied by the extremely difficult geography, complete lack of infrastructure, and heavy Maoist fortification. It is because of this administrative vacuum, that most security officers in Bastar refer to the area as the “last bastion of the Maoists”, where the senior most cadre, including the politburo and the central committee, of the CPI(Maoist) take refuge through the year.

The government has deployed thousands of forces to battle the rebels across the insurgent-dominated region known as the “Red Corridor”.

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