Security forces gunned down at least 31 suspected Maoists in the early hours of Sunday inside a Chhattisgarh forest considered an impregnable rebel fortress till now, marking the year’s most successful anti-Maoist operation so far.

Two jawans were killed and two others suffered critical injuries during the fierce gun battle inside the Indravati National Park in Bijapur district, where 650 security personnel reportedly launched a coordinated offensive.

The national park, adjoining the dense Abujhmad forests, has been a safe haven for the Maoists. Sprawling 2,799.08sqkm, the park hugs the Maharashtra border. It was declared a tiger reserve in 1983.

In a post on X, Union home minister Amit Shah congratulated the forces and reaffirmed his “resolve” to root out Maoism by March 31 next year.

“Security forces have achieved a big success in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur in the direction of achieving a Naxal-free India. In this operation, along with killing 31 Naxalites, a large amount of weapons and explosives have also been recovered,” he wrote.

On the two jawans who lost their lives, he said: “This country will always be indebted to these heroes.”

Sources said the operation was launched following intelligence that a large number of Maoists had gathered at the site. A joint team of District Reserve Guard (DRG) commandos, Special Task Force (STF) personnel and Bastar Fighters — all units of the Chhattisgarh police — conducted the offensive.

After the guns fell silent, the forces found the bodies of 31 rebels in fatigues who are yet to be identified, sources said. The munitions recovered include a large number of firearms — including AK-47, Insas and self-loading rifles — grenade launchers and explosives, they added.

The inspector-general of police (Bastar Range), Sundarraj P, said the two slain jawans were from the DRG and the STF. He said the search operations had been expanded and the rebel death toll could rise.

Sources said the two injured jawans were being treated at a hospital in state
capital Raipur.

Fourteen Maoists, including five women and a commander with a bounty of ₹1 crore on his head, were gunned down by the security forces last month inside a forest along the Chhattisgarh-Odisha border. Another eight Maoists were killed in Bijapur last week.

A Union home ministry official said the latest operation was part of a wider counter-offensive against the Maoists that would continue with greater intensity. The renewed offensive is said to be retribution for the massacre of eight Chhattisgarh police commandos and their driver last month.

“Security forces have launched a massive offensive inside forests considered Maoist hotbeds, aided by unmanned aerial vehicles that are being used for reconnaissance,” a ministry official said.

Deputy chief minister Vijay Sharma said more than 650 security force personnel had participated in the weekend operation, entering the national park from different sides.

All the dead rebels wore fatigues, and automatic weapons were recovered from them, he told reporters.

State police said the forces had gunned down 81 Maoists in Chhattisgarh so far this year, 65 of them killed in the Bastar division, made up of seven districts including Bijapur. The forces had killed 219 Maoists in Chhattisgarh last year, according to
the police.