Maoist leader among 14 killed in Chhattisgarh gunfight

The officers said that firing was continuing deep inside the forests in the Gariaband district of Chhattisgarh and the toll might increase

Security forces shot dead at least 14 Maoists, including a top insurgent leader, in an overnight encounter along the Chhattisgarh-Odisha border, officials aware of the matter said on Tuesday — the second major setback to the rebels in a week and the latest in a string of operations against Left Wing Extremism (LWE).

Maoist leader among 14 killed in Chhattisgarh gunfight

The officers said that firing was continuing deep inside the forests in the Gariaband district of Chhattisgarh and the toll might increase.

The gunfight broke out on Monday evening after a joint team of the Chhattisgarh Police’s District Reserve Guard (DRG), CRPF’s CoBRA (Commando Battalion for Resolute Action) commandos, and Special Operation Group (SOG) of the Odisha Police launched a search operation in the Kularighat reserve forest, around 5km from Odisha’s Nuapada district.

“The operation was launched on Sunday evening, and firing has been going on since Monday morning. On Monday, two women Maoists were killed, and a CoBRA jawan was injured. The police force cordoned off the area and camped inside the jungle on Monday night. On Tuesday, a fresh gunfight started, and 12 more Maoists were gunned down,” said Amresh Mishra, inspector general of police, Raipur range. He added that eight of the deceased were men and six women. In an official release, Odisha Police said another SOG jawan was later injured in the encounter but added that the two personnel were stable.

Gariaband superintendent of police, Nikhil Rakhecha, said one of the deceased was identified as Jairam alias Chalpati, a central committee member of the CPI (Maoist), who was carrying a bounty of ₹1 crore.

“Chalapati was a CC (central committee) member, which means at least 12 armed guards would have been accompanying him. We have information that around 25 cadre were present when the encounter started, and since they were surrounded by forces, there are chances that the toll can increase,” said a senior police officer on condition of anonymity.

Hailing from the Matampalli village in Chittoor district, 60-year-old Chalapathi was one of the main accused in the Claymore mine attack on a convoy of Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu in Tirupati in October 2003. A matriculate, Chalapathi joined the Maoists in the 1980s and rose up their ranks. Considered to be a key strategist in the Maoist operations in the Bastar region, he recently relocated to the Odisha border area to escape the intense anti-Maoist operations in the Abhujmad area, officials aware of the matter said.

“The elimination of a senior leader has a significant impact on the lower cadres. The Maoist Odisha state committee will become weaker,” said RK Vij, former special director general of police, Chhattisgarh.

In an official release, authorities said massive amount of arms and ammunition, including one SLR, two 303 rifle, one INSAS, four magazines, eight country made weapons, ten live rounds and IEDs were seized from the encounter site.

The encounter broke out five days after a huge posse of 3,000 security personnel gunned down at least 18 Maoists, including the Telangana chief of CPI (Maoist) Bade Chokka Rao, also known as Damodar, in Bijapur — the first big anti-insurgency success in the state since the rebels blew up a vehicle and killed nine people earlier in the month. The string of high-profile encounters is aimed at pushing back extremists, taking over their jungle hideouts, and crippling their fortifications. Forces have killed 46 Maoists in Chhattisgarh so far this year. Last year, they killed 219 Maoists, much higher than the 22 killed in 2023 and the 30 in 2022.

Union home minister Amit Shah, who has said that India will be free of LWE by March 2026, said the country was on track to ending the menace of Maoism.

“Another mighty blow to Naxalism. Our security forces achieved major success towards building a Naxal-free Bharat… With our resolve for a Naxal-free India and the joint efforts of our security forces, Naxalism is breathing its last today,” he posted on X.

Since December 2023, the security forces have intensified aggression against LWE, creating 17 new forward camps in what were thus far thought to be core Maoist-controlled areas. This includes areas inside Abhujmad, a 4,000 sq-km expanse of forests that straddles Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.

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.

“Our soldiers have achieved huge success, and our government is working to end the Naxalism. Maoism is like a cancer and we will succeed in destroying it completely. We will fulfil the resolution of the PM and the HM,” Chhattisgarh chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai said.

(Inputs from Srinivasa Rao Apparasu from Hyderabad)