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There will be no ceasefire: Amit Shah on anti-Maoist action
“...There will be no ceasefire. If you want to surrender, there’s no need for a ceasefire. Lay down your weapons. The police won’t fire a single bullet,” he said
Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday asserted that the union government will meet its target of eradicating Naxal terrorism by March 2026, and said there will be no ceasefire, but those who want to lay down arms will be given a chance to rehabilitate and rebuild their lives.
“...There will be no ceasefire. If you want to surrender, there’s no need for a ceasefire. Lay down your weapons. The police won’t fire a single bullet,” he said.
Attacking the left intellectuals and political parties for providing support to Naxal terrorism, he said since it came to power at the centre in 2014, the Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party government has followed a stringent policy of “unified and strategic response” to weed out Naxal violence and the result has been a significant drop in civilians deaths and casualties among the armed forces.
“In the northeastern region, compared to 2004–2014, there was a 70% decrease in the deaths of security personnel during 2014–2024. Similarly, compared to 2004–2014, civilian deaths decreased by 85% during 2014–2024...” he said speaking at a valedictory session of Naxal Mukt Bharat, organised by the Syama Prasad Mookerjee Foundation, a think tank affiliated to the BJP.
Blaming the previous governments for not having a specific policy to counter the problem he said earlier, actions were carried out in a scattered approach. With the Modi government formulating a stringent policy, he said, for the first time, the state police and central security forces have been given full freedom to take action.
“A functional bridge has been created between the Indian government and the states for intelligence sharing and operational coordination, as well as between neighboring states...” he said.
Rebutting the argument that Naxal violence stemmed from lack of development, he said, those who support that narrative should question why schools and healthcare facilities were prevented in the red area. “LWE did not start because of development. Development was halted because of left-wing extremism,” he said.
Shah said the government’s response to the terrorism led to 17 members of the central committee (CPIM) being killed. “Targeted operations were carried out. Forensic investigation, location tracking and mobile service tracking, scientific cell log analysis and social media analysis were used to track down their hidden supporters…After 2019, the thrust was on empowering states,” he said.
He went on to say, “I have no hesitation in using ruthless strategies. In Chhattisgarh there is a good policy… a red carpet for those surrendering. We don’t want to kill anyone, but it is my dharma to save innocent people and kill those who attack them.”
Highlighting the government’s achievements in reducing the violence he said, 270 naxals were killed in a year; 290 were killed with arms; 1090 arrested and 881 surrendered. The number of terror affected districts he said has come down from 124 to 18 and the most affected districts have shrunk from 36 to 6.
Attacking the Left parties, the CPI and the CPIM for speaking against Operation Black Forest (a military operation by the security forces against Naxalite insurgents in areas between Chhattisgarh and Telangana that began in April) he said, “...To spread confusion, a letter was written stating that what has happened so far has been a mistake, that a ceasefire should be declared, and that we want to surrender…And as soon as the letter arrived, everyone started jumping. All these leftist parties had publicly shied away from leftist violence. But as soon as Operation Black Forest happened, their petty sympathies were exposed.”
