M.P. Nathanael | What Had Really Turned the Tide Against Maoists All Across India

The surrender of 130 Maoists along with 124 weapons before Telangana chief minister A. Revanth Reddy in Hyderabad on March 7 marks the end of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army, which was in the forefront in attacks on security forces and others in Chhattisgarh in recent years.

Interestingly, 124 of them are from Chhattisgarh, four from Telangana and one from Andhra Pradesh. Some of them were guards of the general secretary of the CPI (Maoists), Thippiri Tirupathi alias Devuji, 62, who along with another central committee member Malla Raji Reddy,76, and 20 others had surrendered before the special intelligence bureau of the Telangana police in Asifabad district on February 22.

Elevated to the pivotal post of general secretary consequent to the death of Basvaraju in an encounter in Bijapur in May last year, Devuji was a harsh critic of those who chose to surrender with weapons. When Mallujola Venugopal Rao, a central committee member, surrendered along with over 60 Maoists in Gadchiroli in October last, Devuji branded them as traitors.

Surrender in such large numbers is bound to serve as a catalyst for other Maoists to also surrender and lay down arms.

Without a leader, the movement is left rudderless and there is no one to motivate or issue directions. Having realised that in the face of aggressive, determined and relentless operations by the CRPF, Cobra battalions and other state forces, their death is imminent, so they are surrendering in large numbers.

It speaks volumes of the determined and decisive efforts of Union home minister Amit Shah that he took an unprecedented decision to set out a deadline for the security forces to exterminate the Maoists menace by March 31, 2026. With the deadline set, the Central forces, comprising the CRPF, BSF, ITBP and SSB, as well as the respective state police forces, launched a series of operations in full throttle. Equipped with modern weapons like 81 mm mortars, under barrel grenade launchers, AK-47 rifles, Glock pistols, thermal imagers and night vision devices, the security forces went in hot pursuit of Maoists across all the affected states.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and the ferocious Malinois sniffer dogs were added as force multipliers.

Battalions of the CAPF pulled out from other states, particularly the Northeast, where the situation had considerably improved, were inducted into Abhujmarh where the security forces had not set foot for decades.

The construction of roads that hitherto appeared to be an unachievable task with contractors and labour fearful of Maoist threats and attacks was a matter of serious concern. On July 18, 2009, trucks engaged in construction work in Bijapur were set on fire by the Maoists, forcing the contractors and their workers to flee. On March 11, 2017, the CRPF personnel giving security cover for under construction road connecting Bhejji to Kottachery were attacked by over 100 Maoists, resulting in the martyrdom of 12 of them. On April 24, 2017, CRPF personnel securing an under-construction road in Burkapal in Sukma were attacked, resulting in the deaths of 25 personnel.

Under the CRPF’s protection, the Border Roads Organisation started construction of roads in November 2024 in remote areas of Bastar connecting villages, including Puvarti village in Sukma, the birthplace of Madvi Hidma, who was killed in November last year. The efforts made by Maoists to sabotage the construction were thwarted by the CRPF men.

Soon the CRPF established Forward Operating Bases in the Abhujmarh area, once considered to be the impenetrable bastion of Maoists. With the induction of security forces in the vast forested 4,000 sq km stretch of land, development entered the region in a big way. Mobile towers were erected and mobile sets given to villagers. Access to the world through TV sets and mobiles excited the denizens, who were cut off from rest of the world for decades. Schools were reopened and health centres set up.

With a robust intelligence set-up, pinpoint information on the Maoists’ movements started flowing to the security forces and operations launched instantly, leading to success in the arrest or killing the Maoists in encounters.

To a large extent, the CRPF personnel are credited with exterminating the Maoists cadre from the left-wing extremist (LWE)-affected states. Their immense contribution in securing the under-construction roads and getting villages connected has enabled the region to be developed by the Chhattisgarh government and the Centre. Over 780 CRPF personnel sacrificed their lives in their efforts to uproot Maoists from all LWE-affected states. Extolling the CRPF’s derring-do, Deva Barse, a surrendered Maoist and former commander of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army, stated that even when surrounded by hordes of Maoists in encounters, they fight till death shouting “Bharat Mata ki Jai”.

The three-week incessant operation named Ops Black Forest launched in May last year in the treacherous Karregutta hills was a turning point when the Maoists ensconced comfortably in the caves dotting the hills were displaced. Thousands of security personnel scoured the forests and killed over 30 Maoists in encounters. Some managed to sneak into adjoining Telangana in small groups. No sooner had the operations ended, general secretary Basavaraju was killed along with 26 other Maoists by the District Reserve Guards in an encounter in Narayanpur on May 21.

Of the three surviving central committee members, Misir Besra is on the run in the Seranda forests in Jharkhand, with Cobra commandos in hot pursuit, and Papa Rao is evading the security forces in the Telangana-Chhattisgarh border area. The whereabouts of former general secretary Ganpathi, 76, is apparently known to the Telangana police. Preparations are on in full swing for his surrender before the Union home minister to mark the end of the Maoist movement in the country, when he will declare to the nation that the internal security threat to the country has ended once and for all.

The writer is a retired CRPF IGP