Union home minister Amit Shah has reiterated the Centre’s deadline to end Left-Wing Extremism, saying Maoist insurgency will be completely eradicated before March 31.
The assertion came after a high-level security review meeting in Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur, a state that has remained central to the fight against Naxalism for decades.
Shah chaired the meeting amid intensified operations against Maoist groups across central India, particularly in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region.
Senior officials from the Union government, central armed police forces and several Maoist-affected states were present.
In a post on X, Shah said the government’s approach was showing results.
“Today in Raipur, I held a review meeting with the Chhattisgarh government and officials on anti-Naxal operations. The security-centric strategy, infrastructure development, targeting of the Naxal financial network and the surrender policy have yielded positive results, and Naxalism will be completely eradicated before March 31,” he wrote, sharing photographs from the meeting.
The review was attended by Chhattisgarh chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai and deputy chief minister Vijay Sharma, along with the Union home secretary, the director of the Intelligence Bureau and the special secretary (internal security) in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Directors general of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) were also present.
Police chiefs and senior officers from Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Telangana joined the discussions.
At the heart of the conversation was Bastar, a region that includes seven districts and shares borders with Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
For years, Bastar has been considered the strongest base of Maoist influence, marked by difficult terrain, limited connectivity and repeated attacks on security forces. That grip has loosened over the past few years.
Anti-Naxal operations have been stepped up, with a focus on coordinated action by state police and central forces, alongside road construction, telecom expansion and measures aimed at cutting off financial channels used by Maoist groups.
The numbers underline the shift. Since January 2024, more than 500 Naxalites have been killed in encounters in Chhattisgarh, according to police. Those killed include top cadres such as CPI (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshava Rao alias Basavaraju.
During the same period, around 1,900 Naxalites were arrested and over 2,500 surrendered in the state.
