NEW DELHI: With CPI (Maoist) being the most potent threat among the different shades of Naxal outfits operating the country, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in its latest report has said that the left-wing extremists were trying their best to seep into new areas along interstate borders but without any significant success due to the government’s multipronged approach and tough action by paramilitary and state police forces.
In the report for the year 2023-24 the MHA said, the CPI (Maoist) continues to be “the most potent among the various LWE outfits” in the country. The outfit accounted for more than 90 per cent of total violent incidents and 95 per cent of resultant deaths, it added.
As the Naxal outfit received major reverses in the face of the onslaught by the security forces, the MHA said, the CPI (Maoist) has been making efforts to expand to new areas along interstate borders, but has so far failed to get any "significant success.” The outfit wishes to keep the population in their areas of influence marginalised to perpetuate their outdated ideology, it added.
The report further asserted that because of the efforts of the security forces and other developmental initiatives, there has been a reduction in violent incidents, from 1,136 in 2013 to 594 in 2023, which is a decrease of 48 per cent.
A 65 per cent reduction was also seen in the deaths of civilians and security forces, which came down from 397 to 138 in 2023 as compared to 2013, it added.
It is to be noted here that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had in a recent review meeting set a target of completely eliminating Naxalism by March 31, 2026.
Also, the geographical spread of Left-Wing Extremist violence has shrunk considerably to 171 police stations in 42 districts in 2023 in comparison to 328 police stations in 76 districts in 2013, the report revealed. “The arc of violence has been considerably restricted with just 25 districts accounting 91 per cent of the LWE violence,” it added.
Continued operations and crackdowns in the “core Maoists’ areas” have slightly increased the number of resultant deaths and casualties to security forces when compared with the corresponding period in 2022, the MHA said in the report.
Noting that improvised explosive devices cause the majority of casualties to security forces in anti-LWE operations, the MHA issued a Standard Operating Procedure to promote best practices in IED management besides putting in place extensive counter-IED capacity building of CFs and state police forces, it said, adding that beefing up intelligence coordination has also played a major role in planning action against the Naxals.