News Analysis India

Tag: Maoists

  • Maoist regroup feared after arrest of leader Kishanda and Gadchiroli encounter

    By Express News Service

    KOLKATA:  At a time when law enforcing agencies arrested CPI (Maoist)’s second-in-command Prashanta Bose alias Kishanda and neutralised 26 rebels in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli in past 48 hours, West Bengal police are fearing that the outlawed outfit’s members are regrouping in Junglemahal, a backward region in the state.

    With the recovery of two land mines, which were manufactured very recently and capable of blowing up a vehicle, from Lalgarh in the erstwhile hotbed of the rebel outfit in Jhargram district, which witnessed large-scale bloodbath between 2008 and 2011 and killing of several CPI(M) activists, police officials suspect the banned organisation already recruited its foot-soldiers silently while lying low since the past one decade.

    ‘’Taking advantage of Covid-19 pandemic, many outsiders entered the area and organised health camps in the remote pockets located inside deep forests. We suspect many of them are members of Maoist’s frontal organisations who entered the area in the disguise of social workers and reunited their ground-level strength. During Durga Puja, we noticed many unknown faces roaming in the villages,’’ said an official of the state intelligence branch.

    The West Bengal police also arrested an ideologue of CPI (Maoist) from Birbhum district recently. 

    The Maoists have been maintaining silence since their leader Koteshwar Rao alias Kishanji, who was also a politburo member of the outfit, was gunned down in November, 2011, six months after the change of political guard in West Bengal and Mamata Banerjee became the chief minister of the state. 

  • Gadchiroli encounter: Milind Teltumbde’s killing a big blow to Maoists

    By PTI

    NAGPUR: From working as an electrician to joining a labour movement to playing a key role in expanding the Naxal footprint in Central India, 57-year-old Milind Teltumbde climbed up gradually in the Maoist hierarchy over years, and in the process became a ruthless comrade who didn’t hesitate in planning and launching deadly encounters against the security personnel, according to Gadchiroli police.

    He had 67 major offences, including participating in encounters against the police, murder and dacoity, registered against him in Gadchiroli alone, the police said in a release on Sunday.

    Milind Teltumbde, carrying a bounty of Rs 50 lakh on his head, was gunned down along with 25 ultras in a ten-hour-long gun battle in the Mardintola forest in the Gadchiroli district by C-60 commandos on Saturday.

    He was known by many monikers like Jiva, Deepak, Praveen, Sudhir, Sahyadri, according to the police.

    He was one of the wanted accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.

    He was the brother of activist Anand Teltumbde arrested earlier in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case and is currently lodged at the Taloja prison in neighbouring Navi Mumbai, police officials had said earlier in the day.

    Milind Teltumbde was born to Baburao Teltumbde on February 5, 1964.

    He hailed from Rajur village in Wani tehsil in the Yawatmal district of Maharashtra.

    After clearing the class 10 exam, Milind Teltumbde took admission to an Industrial Training Institute (ITI).

    During 1984-85, he joined the Dhoptala (Sasti) open cast coal mines.

    He also worked as an electrician in the Padmapur open cast coal mines where he came into contact with Sujan Abraham, state secretary, Akhil Maharashtra Kamgar Union and gradually became influenced by the Naxal ideology, police said.

    Milind Teltumbde then joined a labour movement through the Majoor Sanghatan and the Indian Mine Workers Federation.

    Before 1994, he had worked as president of the Navjawan Bharat Sabha.

    After joining Naxalism, Milind Teltumbde worked as DVCM (Divisional Committee Member) of the coal belt area in Chandrapur, Wani, Umred, and Nagpur in Maharashtra.

    In the year 2004-2005, he became a member of the Maharashtra State Committee (MRSC) of Maoists.

    After the arrest of Shridhar Shrinivasan, he was promoted as Secretary of MRSC, police said.

    In 2012-13, he worked as in-charge of the North Gadchiroli-Gondia-Balaghat Division.

    During the fourth meeting of the Central Committee Members (CCM) held in April 2013, he was promoted as the CCM member.

    In the year 2016-17, MRSC was dissolved and a new Maharashtra–Madya Pradesh–Chhattisgarh (MMC) zone was formed and he was appointed as the leader to the MMC zone, the police said.

    In the year, 2021, Milind Teltumbde acted as CCM and also as the in-charge of the MMC zone.

    He monitored and analysed the movements of security forces in Gadchiroli, Gondia, Balaghat and Rajnandgaon.

    He was the mastermind in laying many an ambush, triggering bomb blasts and other subversive activities.

    He played a vital role in strengthening Naxal organization in urban areas, police said.

    According to police, Milind Teltumbde had been involved in 42 incidents of encounters, murdering seven civilians and four policemen.

    Other cases against him included those of arson and dacoity.

    “In all, he was involved in 63 major offences registered in the Gadchiroli district. Key incidents among them are the Jambhulkheda blast on May 1, 2019, in which 15 police personnel were killed. In the Koparshi encounter on May 17, 2020, two police personnel were killed during the encounter in the forest,” the release said.

    Addressing a press conference, Gadchiroli SP Ankit Goyal said the police had received intelligence inputs about two days before the Saturday operation about the presence of a Naxal camp in the Mardintola forest in the Gyarapatti area of the Korchi tehsil.

    DIG (Gadchiroli range) Sandip Patil and other senior police officers were present at the press conference.

    “A team of 300 police personnel, including C-60 commandos and SAT, along with additional SP Soumya Munde launched the anti-Naxal operation. They started conducting a search operation on Thursday night in the Mardintola forest. Around 6 AM on Saturday, over 100 ultras opened a heavy firing with their sophisticated weapons and ammunition on C-60 commandos and Special Action Team (SAT) personnel,” he said.

    The encounter left 26 ultras dead and four security personnel injured, he added.

    Goyal said 16 bodies have been identified so far with the help of the ultras who have surrendered.

    He said many of the slain Naxals carried huge rewards on their heads, including top Maoist leader Milind Teltumbde who carried a bounty of Rs 50 lakh.

    “Killing of Milind Teltumbde will affect the Naxal movement very badly not only in Maharashtra but across India,” Goyal added.

    Teltumbde was a wanted accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, a senior police official said earlier in the day.

    Police said the ultras had gathered in large numbers in the forest to plan “subversive” activities against security personnel ahead of the Naxal week.

    According to the police, the killing of Milind Teltumbde, carrying a bounty of Rs 50 lakh, has delivered a huge blow to the banned movement in the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh (MMC) zone, DIG, Gadchiroli Range, Sandip Patil said.

    Milind Teltumbde was one of the wanted accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case.

    He was the brother of activist and scholar Anand Teltumbde arrested earlier in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case and is currently lodged at the Taloja prison in neighbouring Navi Mumbai.

    Milind Teltumbde was the key person who in the last 20 years gave momentum to the Naxal movement and built it in Maharashtra, the DIG told PTI.

    “He was the only future of that movement and there was no other leader in Maharashtra,” the officer added.

    “Considering his contribution to the Naxal movement and his influence among some parts of the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra and urban areas, he was a very important and key cadre and we were searching for him for a very long time,” he said.

    According to the senior police official of the Gadchiroli range, the MMC was a very important zone and project of Maoists.

    Giving details about the encounter, Gadchiroli SP Ankit Goyal said the police had received intelligence inputs two days before the Saturday operation about the presence of a Naxal camp in the forest in the Mardintola forest in the Gyarapatti area of the Korchi tehsil.

    “A team of 300 police personnel, including C-60 commandos and SAT, along with additional SP Soumya Munde launched the anti-Naxal operation. They started conducting a search operation on Thursday night in the forest. Around 6 AM on Saturday, over 100 ultras opened a heavy firing with their sophisticated weapons and ammunition on C-60 commandos and Special Action Team (SAT) personnel,” he said.

    Goyal said 16 bodies have been identified so far with the help of the ultras who have surrendered.

    He said many of the slain Naxals carried huge rewards on their heads.

    “Killing of Milind Teltumbde will affect the Naxal movement very badly not only in Maharashtra but across India,” Goyal added.

    An official said Milind Teltumbde, the MMC zone’s secretary and the only member from Maharashtra in the Maoists’ central committee, was tasked to divert the central government’s attention from hilly areas to the MMC zone.

    “It (Milind Teltumbde’s killing) is a big setback for them in the MMC zone because he was its chief in-charge,” he said.

    To a query on Milind Teltumbde’s deep link with the ‘urban Naxal’ movement, the official said he was one cadre who had strong connections in both the urban and jungle-based movements.

    Milind Teltumbde along with his wife Angela Sontakke used to run an “urban network” (of the rebels) in Maharashtra, he said.

    As per a charge sheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Elgar Parishad case, Milind Teltumbde was named as the ‘dreaded Maoist’, a top operative of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), and declared as absconding.

    Speaking about the anti-Naxal operation, Goyal said the police had inputs that Naxals from the company no 4, Tipagad LOS, Korchi LOS, Vistar Platoon, CCM Milind Teltumbde’s Guard and other dalams were present in large numbers in the Mardintola forest.

    “As per the information, the ultras had gathered in the forest to plan various strategies against the security forces in the backdrop of the upcoming ‘Naxal week’ and also to carry out other subversive activities,” he said.

    The SP said when C-60 commandos came under fire on Saturday morning, they appealed to the Naxals to stop gunfire and surrender.

    “But, disregarding this appeal, Naxals intensified the gunfire. The ensuing gun battle between the police and the ultras continued close to ten hours and ended at 3.30 pm when sensing mounting police pressure, the Naxals fled from the place of the incident taking cover under the thick forest.”

    “During the search, the commandos recovered 26 bodies which included 20 men and 6 women,” he added.

    A huge cache of arms and ammunition was recovered which includes five AK-47 rifles, one AKM-UBGL, nine SLRs, three .303 rifles, nine 2.2 single bore, one Insas rifle, one pistol and explosives.

    Among the slain Naxals, Divisional Committee Member (DVCM) Lokesh Madkam was carrying a reward of Rs 20 lakh on his head and Mahesh Gota of Rs 16 lakh.

    “Commanders” Kishan Jaiman and Sannu Kowachi each carried a reward of Rs 8 lakh on their heads, the SP said.

    Among the female Naxals killed in the encounter, Vimla alias Manso Boga, who was the bodyguard of Milind Teltumbde, was carrying a cash reward of Rs 4 lakh reward on her head, the official said.

  • Milind Teltumbde among 26 Naxals killed in Maharashtra, say police

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Top Maoist leader Milind Teltumbde was among the 26 Naxals killed in an encounter with police in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district, a senior police official said on Sunday.

    The gun-battle took place on Saturday at Korchi in Mardintola forest area of the district, located over 900 km from Mumbai, when a C-60 police commando team was conducting a search operation, police earlier said.

    The C-60 commandos, an elite wing of the police, had recovered bodies of 26 Naxals during a search after the encounter and Teltumbde, one of the wanted accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, was suspected to be among the dead.

    “Teltumbde was among the 26 dead Naxals,” a senior state police official confirmed on Sunday.

    The police also recovered 29 firearms from the spot, including nine 12 bore weapons, nine SLRs (self-loading rifles) and five AK-47 guns, another police official said.

    The dead rebels included 20 males and six females.

    A male and a female bodyguard of Teltumbde were also among those killed in the encounter, police said.

    Milind Teltumbde, the brother of activist and scholar Anand Teltumbde, was carrying a reward of Rs 50 lakh on his head for his alleged involvement in violent activities against the state.

    Anand Teltumbde had been arrested earlier in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case and is currently lodged at the Taloja prison in neighbouring Navi Mumbai.

    As per a charge sheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in the Elgar Parishad case, Milind Teltumbde was named as the ‘dreaded Maoist’, a top operative of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), and declared as absconding.

    He was allegedly involvement in the Naxal movement since 1996 and was on the radar of central and state security agencies for the last few years in the wake of his activities.

    A witness of the NIA in the Elgar Parishad case in a statement claimed that Milind Teltumbde had lived in Dhammadeep Nagar at Ita Bhatti Chowk in Maharashtra’s Nagpur district.

    The witness had claimed that Milind Teltumbde bought a property worth Rs 7 lakh under the name of an associate and stayed there between January 2017 and April 2018.

    According to the NIA, Milind Teltumbde used several alias names like ‘Anil’, ‘Deepak’, ‘Sahyadri’ and ‘Comrade M’ while on the run.

    On Saturday, four police personnel were also seriously injured in the action against Naxals in Gadchiroli, which lies on the border of Chhattisgarh, and were taken to Nagpur by a helicopter for treatment.

  • Year after woman Naxal was gunned down by police, Maoists abduct and kill two villagers in MP

    By Express News Service

    BHOPAL: Armed Maoists allegedly abducted two villagers and gunned them down on suspicion of being police informers in Naxal-affected Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh early on Saturday.

    The abduction and killing of the two men by the Naxals is possibly linked to the gunning down of a wanted woman outlaw Sharda by police in the same jungles in November 2020.

    The two men identified as Santosh Yadav and Jagdish Patel were abducted from their houses by four masked Maoists, including two armed women, in Malkhedi village under Baihar police station area at around 7 pm on Friday.

    Nearly eight hours later, gunshots were heard from the adjoining jungles at around 3 pm and both the bodies were spotted by villagers a few hours later after sunrise on Saturday.

    A handwritten note bearing the name of CPI (Maoists) Khatiya Mochi Area Committee was recovered by police from the spot where the two kidnapped men were found murdered.

    ALSO READ: 26 suspected Maoists killed in gun battle in Maharashtra, three jawans injured

    The note cautioned the villagers not to turn police informers, failing which they would face a similar fate. 

    The note also warned the young Balaghat district police superintendent Abhishek Tiwari not to use villagers as police informers.

    While confirming the horrific killing of the two villagers by armed Maoist cadres, the SP Balaghat said the incident shows how Naxals are targeting innocent villagers by dubbing them as police informers.

    “The search operations have been intensified in the concerned area. The abduction and killing is possibly connected to last year’s police operation in which a wanted Maoist was killed in the same jungles,” Tiwari said.

    According to Rajan Patel, the elder brother of one of the murdered men, four armed persons, two of them being women (all four covering their faces) abducted both Santosh and Jagdish from their houses and snatched away their cellphones. Subsequently, gunshots were heard from the jungles at around 3 am and both bodies were spotted in the morning. 

    “Both men including my brother were found murdered in the same jungles, where the woman Maoist was gunned down by police last year. The twin killings have possibly been executed to avenge the November 2020 killing of the woman Naxalite in a police encounter,” Rajan Patel alleged. 

    While maintaining that the gruesome killing of the two innocent villagers has exposed the real face of the Naxals, MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced assistance of Rs 5 lakh each to the bereaved families and assured government jobs to one member of each family. “I’ve reviewed the situation and directed the police to intensify the anti-Naxal operation further,” Chouhan said.  

  • Naxals free Chhattisgarh government peon, sub-engineer still in captivity

    By PTI

    BIJAPUR: A peon working in a Chhattisgarh government department was released by Naxals, two days after he and a sub-engineer were abducted while surveying an under-construction road in Bijapur district, police said on Saturday.

    However, the sub-engineer is still in the captivity of ultras, they said.

    Sub Engineer Roshan Lakra (35) of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) and his department’s peon Lakshman Partagiri (24) went missing on Thursday when they had gone for conducting a survey of a road being built on a 15-km stretch between Bijapur town and Gorna-Mankeli, a senior police officer said.

    “When Lakra and Partagiri did not return till Friday evening to the Bijapur district headquarter, a search was launched to trace their whereabouts,” he said.

    Later, police received information that the two were abducted from Kanhaiguda village, located around 4 km away from Gorna, by militia cadres of Maoists, he said.

    “On Friday late evening, Partagiri was freed at the same spot and he is safe. Lakra is still in the captivity of ultras and efforts are being made to secure his safe release”, he added.

  • Chhattisgarh: Naxals release five abducted villagers

    By PTI

    RAIPUR: Naxals have released five people, including a class 12 girl, who they had abducted from a village in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district two days back, police said on Monday.

    These five people reached their village Bater under the Konta police station limits on Monday morning, Sukma Superintendent of Police Sunil Sharma said.

    “Some of them were reported to be assaulted by ultras,” he added.

    Maoists had forcibly taken them away from their village, located around 18 km deep inside the forest from Konta, which is over 470 km from Raipur, on Saturday, he said, adding that the motive behind the abduction is not known.

    After being alerted about the abduction on Sunday afternoon, security forces launched a search operation.

    Sarva Adivasi Samaj, an umbrella body of tribal communities in the Bastar region, has also appealed to ultras to release these villagers, he added.

    In July this year, ultras had kept eight residents of Kunded village in their captivity for two-three days before releasing them, he added.

  • Eight Maoists including six carrying rewards on their heads arrested in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma

    Express News Service

    RAIPUR: As many as eight suspected hardcore Maoists, six of them carrying rewards on their heads, were taken into custody during the joint operation launched by the security forces in the forested terrain of Morepalli in the strife-torn Sukma district of south Chhattisgarh.

    The forces also recovered four improvised explosive devices (IEDs), detonators, batteries, some weapons, Maoist literature and items of daily use.

    “Acting on a tip-off about the movement of Naxalites in the region, a joint anti-Maoist operation was carried out by the Sukma police and the 201 battalion of CoBRA, an elite unit of the CRPF, in the remote forested areas. During the search operation, eight people were detained and following interrogation their identities were revealed. The state government has declared rewards against six of them,” said Sunil Sharma, Sukma district superintendent of police.

    After cross-verifying their identity, an FIR has been lodged and they would be produced before the local court, the SP added.

    Those arrested included Kawasi Raju, a Maoist battalion cadre, and Kamlu Mada, a militia company commander, who carried rewards of Rs 8 lakh and Rs 5 lakh respectively besides four other cadres of the banned CPI (Maoist) organisation, each carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh on their heads.

    “The disclosures by the eight who were arrested led to the recovery of IEDs planted in remote inhospitable terrain. Such major joint campaigns will continue further and the security forces will ensure with their efforts to get rid of the areas cited as the rebels’ stronghold,” said Yogyan Singh, DIG CRPF (Sukma range).

    Sukma is among the worst Maoist-affected districts in the country.

  • Maoists planning IED attacks to stop police camps in Chhattisgarh: Intel sources

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  Maoists have recently conducted a recce of some police camps in Chhattisgarh and are planning to plant IEDs on the routes opted by security forces to dissuade the latter from constructing more security camps in Naxal areas, according to sources in intelligence agencies.

    A senior intelligence official told this newspaper that there are specific inputs that Maoist cadres of Jagargunda area committee are planning to carry out IED attacks on the routes taken by security forces to reach camps in Mokur and Tarem.

    The official, however, added that the forces are well prepared to defeat all nefarious designs of Naxals.

    Security forces are eyeing to set up as many as 24 Forward Operating Bases (FOBs), including ten in Chhattisgarh, seven in Maharashtra, six in Jharkhand and one in Odisha, before the year-end.

    As many as 22 jawans were killed and 31 personnel sustained injuries in April this year along the Sukma-Bijapur border in Chhattisgarh during an encounter with Naxals.

    Soon after the incident, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said the Maoists attacked out of desperation to counter new security camps opened in their core areas.

    Shah said in the last five-six years, the central and state governments together achieved success in setting up camps of security forces in the interior areas.

    “Both the central and state governments have been jointly making inroads (into Maoist strongholds). Therefore, such incidents come to fore out of their (Maoists) frustration,” the home minister had said.

    There has been a steep decline in violence levels as well as the geographical spread of Left-wing extremism in the country.

    The number of affected districts identified under the security-related expenditure (SRE) scheme came down to 70 in July 2021 from 126 in April 2018. 

  • Govt plans to intensify anti-Naxal operations, chock flow of funds

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Intensifying operations against the Naxals and chocking the flow of funds to them were the two key issues discussed at a high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and attended by six chief ministers and top officials of four other states here on Sunday, sources said.

    Action against frontal organisations of the Maoists, filling up the security vacuum, concerted action by the Enforcement Directorate, the National Investigation Agency and the state police were other vital issues discussed during the nearly three-hour-long meeting.

    The chief ministers who attended the meeting were Naveen Patnaik (Odisha), K Chandrashekar Rao (Telangana), Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Uddhav Thackeray (Maharashtra) and Hemant Soren (Jharkhand), official sources said.

    West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Bhupesh Baghel of Chhattisgarh, YS Jagan Mohan Reddy of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan did not attend the meeting. Their states were represented by senior officials.

    According to sources, intensifying operations against the Naxals, filling up the security vacuum, chocking the flow of funds to extremists and concerted action by the ED, the NIA and the state police were discussed threadbare in the meeting.

    Focused investigation and prosecution of cases, action against front organisations, coordination amongst states, capacity building of state intelligence branches and special forces of the states, construction of fortified police stations were other issues discussed at the meeting.

    The home minister reviewed with the chief ministers and officials the security situation and ongoing operations against Maoists and development projects being carried out in the Naxalism-affected areas, the sources said.

    Shah took stock of the requirements of the states, the strength of forces deployed to tackle the extremists, development works like the construction of roads, bridges, school, and health centres being carried out in Naxal-hit areas.

    Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said the Maoist problem has been reduced to only three districts in his state and the meeting discussed what is required to be done to reduce it further.

    The development issues which were discussed at the meeting include road connectivity, speeding up construction of long pending roads, improvement of telecommunication network by upgrading the mobile towers installed in last five years in Naxal-hit areas and expedition of installation of the more mobile towers in poor network zones.

    The central government is also planning to set up Eklavya schools and ensure coverage of post offices in all gram panchayats in Maoist-hit districts.

    Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw, Giriraj Singh, Arjun Munda and Nityanada Rai also attended the meeting.

    Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, Director of Intelligence Bureau Arvinda Kumar, senior civil and police officers of central and state governments also attended it.

    According to the Union Home Ministry’s data, Maoist violence has reduced considerably in the country and the menace is prevalent now in just about 45 districts.

    However, a total 90 districts in the country are considered Maoist-affected and are covered under the Security Related Expenditure (SRE) Scheme of the ministry.

    The Naxal problem, also called Left Wing Extremism (LWE), were reported in 61 districts in 2019 and in only about 45 districts in 2020.

    About 380 security personnel, 1,000 civilians and 900 Naxals were killed in different violence in LWE affected areas since 2015 till 2020.

    A total of about 4,200 Naxals have also surrendered during the same period, the data said.

  • Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel skips Amit Shah’s meet on Left Wing Extremism 

    By PTI

    RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Sunday skipped a meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Left Wing Extremism (LWE).

    The chief ministers of 10 Naxal-hit states, including Chhattisgarh, were invited to the meeting during which Shah was to take stock of the ongoing operations against the ultras and development activities undertaken at the ground level, officials said.

    “Chhattisgarh’s Chief Secretary Amitabh Jain and Director General of Police D M Awasthi have gone to the national capital on the CM’s behalf to attend the meeting,” a public relations department official said.

    Baghel was scheduled to attend a convention of Chandranahu Kurmi Samaj in the state’s Mahasamund district on Sunday afternoon, he said.

    The CM has skipped the crucial meeting at a time when the LWE situation in Chhattisgarh could be a key agenda of discussion as the state has witnessed several deadly attacks on security forces by Naxals in the last few years.

    Senior state officials said the issue of setting up camps of security forces in Bastar, particularly in its southern part that comprises Sukma, Bijapur and Dantewada, was likely to be discussed in Shah’s meeting in Delhi on Sunday.

    Construction of roads and other development works in the strife-torn areas of the state were also likely to be discussed, they said.

    Chhattisgarh recorded the highest number of crimes committed by Maoists in 2020, according to the National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) annual report released recently.

    As per data of the Chhattisgarh police, the Naxal violence has claimed lives of 1,237 security personnel, mostly belonging to paramilitary forces, and 1,615 civilians from 2001 to June this year in the state.

    During the same period, bodies of 1,027 Naxals were also recovered following encounters with security forces, while 4,552 ultras surrendered.

    The state’s eight districts -, Bastar, Kanker, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur, Sukma (all in Bastar region) and Rajnandgaon – are among most Naxal-hit districts in the country, and have been battling the menace for over three decades.

    After assuming charge as the Union home minister, Shah had for the first time visited the insurgency-hit Bastar division in April this year, after 22 security personnel were killed and 31 others injured in a Maoist ambush along the border of the region’s Sukma and Bijapur districts.

    Shah had then held a high-level meeting in Jagdalpur on the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) situation with Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and senior officials of the state police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

    In January this year, Baghel had chaired a meeting of unified command here to review the security situation and development works in Naxal-affected areas of the state.

    The CM had then said his government’s three-pronged strategy of trust, development and security helped in pushing Naxals on the back foot, and success will be achieved in cornering ultras in the coming days.