The Last Chapter of an Insurgency

SECURITY FORCES ON May 21 gunned down Nambala Keshava Rao, the general secretary of the CPI (Maoist) in an operation in the Abhujmad region of Chhattisgarh. Apart from Rao, the most wanted leader in the Maoist ranks, another 26 in­surgents were also killed. The operation comes on the heels of a major campaign in the Karregutta Hills (KG Hills) area in the state. Union Home Minister Amit Shah confirmed the development in a post on X: “A landmark achievement in the battle to eliminate Naxalism. Today, in an operation in Narayanpur, Chhattisgarh, our security forces have neutral­ized 27 dreaded Maoists, including Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basvaraju, the general secretary of CPI-Maoist, topmost leader, and the backbone of the Naxal movement.” He added that it was the first time in three decades that a general secretary-ranked leader had been killed by security forces.

These operations demonstrate the political will to decisively end the Maoist menace in its last remaining redoubts in the Bastar region of the state. This marks a remarkable convergence between the March 31, 2026 deadline given by Union Home Min­ister Amit Shah and the rapidly vanishing territorial control and ranks of Maoists.

The operation on May 21 morning was carried out by a com­bination of forces from the Bijapur, Narayanpur, Dantewada and Kondagaon districts which swooped in on a location in the Abhujmad area.

The success did not come about on its own but was the product of resolve on the part of Shah. Addressing troopers at Basaguda in Chhattisgarh on April 5, 2021 just days after 22 jawans had been killed by Maoists, Shah resolved that Maoist violence would be ended decisively. Four years later, down to the date, the tide had turned. That day in Dantewada, Shah asked Maoists to give up their arms and join the mainstream, an offer the Maoists did not take. Now Rao is dead as are dozens of Maoists across the South Bastar region. The political backing provided in ample measure to security forces—an ingredient always wanting earlier—made the difference. It all began when a trickle of Maoists started to troop into Pujarikanker—a remote hamlet in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh—and surrendered to security forces present there. This was the first inkling of the presence of Maoist leaders at the nearby KG Hills or Karreguttalu. There were other signs as well. A number of Maoist cadres were seen in the vicinity of Nambi waterfall, another location close to KG Hills. Nambi waterfall, located in the eponymous hills, is a picturesque location that also straddles the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border.

Soon enough, security forces launched an unprecedented campaign against Maoists that lasted 21 days from April 20 to May 11. The Maoists were sur­rounded from all sides in their fortress-like redoubt. KG Hills rise up to 5,000 feet and have a steep incline on the Chhattis­garh side while the slope on the Telan­gana side is less steep. This was a feature that allowed, among other things, many Maoists to evade the dragnet during the unprecedented operation. At its height, the security operation involved close to 20,000 troopers from the CRPF, the District Reserve Group (DRG) and the specialised CoBRA troops.

When the operation concluded, security forces seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition. One officer, who was closely involved in the operation, spoke to Open from the location and said, “The quantity of explosives, cordex and other materials seized there is so large that it could have kept 500 Maoists active for more than a year. A huge number of beer-bottle im­provised explosive devices (IED) could be made from these materials.” Beer-bottle IEDs are nasty devices that can inflict devastating injuries on troopers who operate in the area. “The scale of the Mao­ist presence and the importance of the location can be gauged from the fact that lathe machines were also recovered from KG Hills,” the officer added. Lathe machines are machine tools that can be used to shape a variety of metallic objects into weapons and other offensive devices.

KG Hills are located in a remote corner of Bijapur district. The area is thickly wooded and until recently had poor connectivity with other parts of Bijapur and neighbouring districts. On the Telangana side, too, KG Hills are in a patch of Mulugu district that is cut-off by the Godavari river. This makes for a perfect Maoist stronghold: remote, located at the junction of two states and, in turn, areas that are distant from the respective district headquar­ters. Topography and the forested terrain added to the layers of problems for security forces.

A decade ago, KG Hills and other locations where Maoists oper­ated were considered impregnable. But since then large investments in road in­frastructure, modernisation of security forces and, above all, political will on the part of the Union government have made all the difference. The March 31, 2026 deadline for the eradication of Maoists has come a notch closer with the success of the KG Hills operation.

The operations, however, have not been costless. A number of secu­rity personnel were killed, including Sagar Borade, a young assistant com­mandant of 204 CoBRA battalion. Borade, who had to undergo an ampu­tation at AIIMS in New Delhi, was try­ing to save the life of a jawan who was trapped with an IED during the opera­tions at KG Hills.

After KG Hills, where does the Mao­ist ledger of losses stand? Why is the KG Hills operation so significant?

One answer was provided by the di­rector general of CRPF, GP Singh, on May 14 at a press conference in Bijapur. Singh said 31 Maoists had been killed during the 21-day operation. Of those 31 killed, 16 were women. But the number of Mao­ists killed is only one metric of “success”. It must be remembered that the fight is to finish Maoism as an ideology and also ensure that no part of India’s territory re­mains under their control.

A comparison of the three metrics is interesting. By May 21, 214 Maoists had been killed, most of them in Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected districts of Chhattisgarh. This number was 296 for the entire year in 2024, the highest since 2006. But the comparison is deceptive: that year, 128 security personnel also lost their lives in operations against Maoists. Thereafter, a lot has been learned by troopers operating in these difficult areas and, as a result, the number of casualties among their ranks has declined drastically.

The KG Hills operation marks another—much more vital— success for the security forces, the government and the country at large. Located in an extremely remote area of Bijapur district, the KG Hills area was one of the last redoubts of Maoists in South Bastar. It is now ring-fenced with a number of security camps and Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) of paramilitary forces. This in ef­fect denies Maoists access to territory. The KG Hills area by location and topography was an ideal “rear area” from the perspective of the Maoist strategy of guerrilla warfare. In terms of its significance from an “area denial” perspective, it ranks among the most important locations in Chhattisgarh.

The third and most vital parameter for success, the erosion and ending of Maoism as an idea and an ideology is also bearing fruit. In a very interest­ing press release issued on May 10, at the height of the operations in KG Hills, the Central Committee (CC) of the CPI (Maoist) broached the idea of coming “over-ground” for the first time. The release said: “No single per­son can take the decision of giving up armed struggle in our party… for such key decisions to be taken it is necessary that the core of the CC meets. For that reason I propose a ceasefire. In the pres­ent conditions there is no security for our cadre and that makes it impossible to give up arms. That is one reason why we want a ceasefire from both sides. Once that happens our CC/core will meet and take a decision on all mat­ters.” The release was issued by ‘Abhay’, the spokesperson of the CC.

It is not unusual for the CPI (Mao­ist) leadership to issue releases to buy time and regroup for resuming the insurgency. But this time the pressure is showing on the party. The language of the releases also reflects that. The first press release issued by the party in the current cycle on March 28 laid out preconditions for talks. These in­cluded halting of security operations, especially in South Bastar, confining security forces to their camps with no patrolling, and stopping construction of new camps for security forces.

The second release on April 25 wa­tered down some of the demands and the language was toned down from the usual rhetoric. Most such releases preamble the text with denunciations of the “Brahmani­cal”, “fascist”, and “Hindutva leading” government at the Centre. The latest release, the one issued on May 10, makes a plea to “re­spected (Narendra) Modi ji” and requests a ceasefire.

It is too early to say that CPI (Maoist) has changed its outlook. Usually decisions to give up arms are prolonged affairs even if pressure from security operations and the Centre’s unstinted backing against Maoism act as a catalyst for such changes. Such events have occurred before. The CPI (Marxist-Leninist) was another insurgent group that operated in the plains of Bihar for decades. By 1990 it had begun participating in normal politics in the state. Today, it has 12 members in the 243-member Bihar Legislative Assembly after participating in the 2020 Assembly elections. The party is a member of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc.

Maoists’ territorial control of remote regions such as Budha Pahad in Jharkhand and KG Hills on the Chhattisgarh-Telangana boundary has ended. Other locations such as Abhujmaad in Na­rayanpur district of Chhattisgarh and parts of Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra are also being wrested from them under intense security operations. This is just a matter of time.

The “last stronghold” of Maoism as an idea, however, is not territorial but intellectual. It finds refuge among Indian intellectuals who have a theory of “countervailing power” against any force that marches India towards a cohesive and centralised state. While superficially couched in terms of op­posing Hindutva and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), their real motives are sinister. These intellectuals do not espouse Maoism as an organising principle for obvious reasons. They live in the large cities of India, availing all amenities, and certainly do not want to endure a difficult life that is part and parcel of insur­gency. Instead, their idea is one of “resistance” and “countervail­ing power” against any formation that makes India cohesive. Maoists and Maoism come in handy in this quest.

Recently, a spate of articles and social media posts demand­ed that there be “talks” between the government and Maoists. Usually such intellectuals abuse the space available in India’s democracy to ensure Maoists are not wiped out. The use of fo­rums like the Supreme Court to demand its intervention, public protests and exerting pressure on state governments are well-known tactics of this group of individuals. If Maoism loses its appeal among a section of the people, they will move on to the next available idea—‘Federalism’ is another favourite trope—to ensure that India does not progress to an economically devel­oped country. It is time the activities of these ‘intellectuals’ were scrutinised and appropriate steps taken against them.

Amit ShahBastarChhattisgarhCRPFKarregutta HillsMaoistsNambala Keshava Rao