At least twenty-eight Maoists were killed in a fierce gun battle with security forces close to the Nendur-Thulthuli forested village along the inter-district border area of Dantewada and Narayanpur in south Bastar on Friday.
The Bastar range inspector general of police Sunderraj P confirmed the troopers have recovered 28 bodies so far and the count is likely to rise further.
"Based on specific intelligence inputs about the presence of Maoists in the region, a joint team comprising District Reserve Guards (DRG) and Special Task Force (STF) launched parallel search operations. The encounter took place in the forested terrain near Nendu-Thurthuli. Even after late evening hours, the intermittent exchange of firing continued in the area. The search operation in the region remained underway," Prabhat Kumar, Narayanpur district police chief told The New Indian Express.
A large cache of weapons including AK-47, Self Loading Rifle (SLR), Light Machine Gun (LMG), INSAS assault rifle, .303 rifle, and explosives besides other items of Maoists have also been recovered from the site, the police said.
Bastar IG Sundarraj P stated that there remains a possibility of recovering 3-4 more bodies of Maoists after the encounter ended late at night. “One DRG jawan was injured and his condition is out of danger. Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troops have been sent to the area as additional reinforcement and the search operation has been intensified. The region where the operation was launched happened to be the stronghold of senior Maoist leaders of DKZSC and commanders of Peoples' Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) company”, the IG said.
Dantewada and Narayanpur are among the seven Maoist-affected districts in the Bastar zone. There was no report of any injuries sustained by the forces.
As the gun-battle continued till late evening, the armed cadres of the banned outfit were reportedly looking for a safe passage through the forested landscape of the region, the police said.
The recovered bodies will be identified after the safe return of the security forces engaged in the operation.
Chhattisgarh chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai posted his statement on microblogging platform X calling the incident a major success.
“The uprooting of Maoists from the state is our goal. Our double engine government remains fully committed to it”, the chief minister said.
Union home minister Amit Shah during his review meeting of the inter-state coordination committee in Raipur in August this year declared that the country will be free from the Maoist menace by March 2026.
So far 185 cadres of the Maoists have been neutralised by security forces, 663 cadres arrested and 556 surrendered this year since January in the conflict-ridden Bastar zone, south Chhattisgarh.
Since 2019 there were 277 new camps of central armed police forces (CAPF) that were set up to fill the security vacuum in the Maoist-affected areas of the state.
Encounters seen as major success in Bastar this year
27 March: 6 Maoists killed in Bijapur
02 April: 13 Maoists killed in Bijapur
06 April: 3 Maoists kiled along C’garh-Telangana border
16 April: 29 Maoists killed in Kanker
30 April: 9 Maoists killed at inter-district border Narayanpur-Kanker
23 May: 7 Maoists killed on inter-district border Narayanpur-Bijapur
06 June: 7 Maoists killed on Narayanpur, Dantewada and Kondagaon
15 June: 8 Maoists killed in Narayanpur
29 Aug: 3 Woman Maoists killed on borders of Kanker-Narayanpur
03 Sept: 9 Maoists killed on inter-district border Dantewada-Bijapur
25 Sept: 3 Maoists killed In Narayanpur
04 Oct: 28 Maoists killed on inter-district border Dantewada-Narayanpur
Maoists killed in the last five years
2019: 65
2020: 40
2021: 51
2022: 30
2023: 20
2024 (till Oct 04): 185
