Nine Maoists were slain by a combined District Reserve Guard (DRG) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) team on Tuesday during an ongoing conflict in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district, according to official confirmation.
According to officials, intelligence reports indicating the presence of Maoists in the area led to the launch of the operation.
The police report states that the encounter started at approximately 10:30 am and is still going on.
According to a police statement, “sixteen Maoists have been killed to date, and numerous weapons, including a.303 rifle, a.315 bore rifle, and a Self-Loading Rifle (SLR), have been recovered from the spot.”
“Every jawan taking part in the operation is safe. More information will be released once the search is over. The search is still ongoing,” it continued.
In the midst of increased anti-Maoist operations, Union Home Minister Amit Shah presided over an interstate coordination meeting of Left-wing insurgency-affected states in Chhattisgarh late last month.
According to official data, a total of 147 Maoists were killed in 104 gunfights between December 2023 and August, while 723 were taken into custody and 622 gave themselves up. The establishment of forward operating bases (FOBs) in Maoist strongholds has been expedited by the Union government in order to support coordinated intelligence-based operations and enable local authorities to carry out development projects in the isolated villages.
Since December of last year, thirty three FOBs have been established. There are eight in Bijapur, two in Dantewada, four in Narayanpur, one in Kanker, and one in Rajnandgaon. There are also four in Sukma, Chhattisgarh.
The Maoist violence’s geographic distribution has shrunk from 126 districts spread over 10 states in 2013 to 38 districts spread across nine states in 2024, the government informed the Parliament in August. It said that since 2010, there has been a 73% decrease in Maoist violence incidents.
