NEW DELHI: In its revised strategy to deal with Left-wing extremism (LWE), the Central government has focussed on striking at the top leadership in the Naxals ranks over the last four years. The crackdown has led to a leadership crisis in the cadres, resulting in the increase of surrenders and neutralisation of members which has brought down the violent incidents significantly.
As per the figures by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the geographical spread of violence has significantly reduced and only 176 police stations of 45 districts reported violence in 2022 as compared to 465 cases reported at 96 districts in 2010.
The decline in the geographical spread is also reflected in the reduced number of districts covered under the security-related expenditure (SRE) scheme. The number of SRE districts reduced from 126 to 90 in April 2018 and further to 70 in July 2021.
According to sources in MHA, in the last two years, one member of the Politburo - the apex body of the CPI (Maoist), and five central committee members have been arrested by security forces, two have surrendered, and one Milind Bapurao was killed during an encounter in the jungles of Gadchiroli, Maharashtra in 2021. Three other members have also died due to disease which added to the crisis.
In one of the recent actions this month, five top members of the Maoist cadre, including two who were carrying a reward of Rs 25 lakh each on their head, were neutralised in an encounter in Jharkhand’s Chatra. Six rifles, including two AK47s and two INSAS and several rounds of ammunition, were recovered from them and were active in the Chatra and Gaya belt.
According to sources in the ministry, two of the five identified as Gautam Paswan and Ajit Oraon were members of a special area committee and carried a reward of Rs25 lakh each on their heads. The other three were sub-zonal commanders, carrying a reward of Rs5 lakh each. “The incident happened following the arrest of a Central Committee member Vijay Kumar Arya sometime back who was active in Gaya and adjoining zones,” and officially said adding, “With this action, the LWE cadres in Chatra and Gaya belt has suffered a major blow.”
The government action against the leadership has incited a considerable amount of fear among the members of Politburo and Central Committee as are avoiding direct meetings with their own cadre and only selected Naxalites are allowed to meet them. “The forces have been able to inflict considerable damage in the last few years as a result the strength of the top bodies has reduced considerably,” and official said.
Sources in the ministry confirmed that the strength of the Politburo which is the apex body currently stands at 7 members, while the central committee has 11 members. During the initial years, the numbers were 14 and 33. While several members were arrested d
Recently, Nityanand Rai, Minister of State in the Home Ministry informed the parliament that the number of Naxal-affected districts in the country has come down to 70 with Jharkhand continuing to lead the table with 16 affected districts. But the state has seen considerable improvement in the security situation with places like Burha Pahar, the area of Tri Junction of West Singhbhum, Saraikela-Kharsawan and Khunti and Parasnath Hills have been freed from Maoist presence through the establishment of camps and sustained operations by security forces.
“The number of violent incidents in Jharkhand reduced by 82% from a high of 742 incidents in 2009 to 132 incidents in 2022. The number of SRE districts in Jharkhand have also reduced from 19 in 2018 to 16 in 2021,” as per the figures provided to Lok Sabha in March 2023.