New Delhi: It was a combination of solid inputs and meticulous planning that guaranteed the success of the security forces who raided a Maoist hideout deep inside Chhattishgarh’s Abujhmad forest on Friday night. Even the age-old technique of bursting firecrackers to alert Maoists did not prove to be a deterrence in the operation that has left 31 suspected Maoists dead.
Around 15 September, Dantewada police received inputs from the Chhattisgarh’s State Intelligence Branch about two top commanders of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) hiding inside the Abujhmad forest with their cadre. Intelligence inputs on Abujhmad, a nearly 4,000 square kilometre area of dense forest and hilly terrains spanning Narayanpur, Bijapur, and Dantewada, are routine, but it was different this time.
What made it different was that Kamlesh and Neeti, members of the CPI(Maoist)’s most potent wing Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC), were suspected to be among the 70-80 Maoists hiding in the Abujhmad forests in Dantewada and Narayanpur.
The duo had been on the wanted list of security forces for a long time and carried a bounty of Rs 25 lakh each on their heads.
Over the next two weeks, the police left no stone unturned to develop and corroborate the inputs and, on Thursday afternoon, decided to hit the ground running. By Saturday afternoon, the Dantewada and Narayanpur District Reserve Guards (DRG), along with the Special Task Force (STF), had returned to their base with 31 bodies in what has turned out to be the most successful in the history of anti-Maoist operations in Chhattisgarh since 2000.
The operation, named Indra Tular, comes weeks after Union Home Minister Amit Shah said he would eliminate the Maoist threat from the country by March 2026. While Chhattisgarh Police are completing identification of the Maoists neutralised in Dantewada, Shah is preparing for a review meeting on Left Wing Extremism in New Delhi on Monday.
Security forces have killed 185 suspected Maoists in the state this year. Nearly 100 of them have been killed in Abujhmad.
Coordination, improvisation & precaution taken
Security officials involved in the planning said that Dantewada Superintendent of Police Gaurav Rai took the call to launch the operation on Thursday afternoon after the corroboration of inputs showed it to be an opportune moment.
Intelligence about CPI(Maoist) Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee and Indravati Area Committee members, along with the armed People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army’s 6th battalion and platoon 16 members, hiding nearly 50 kilometres from the district police headquarters had already been corroborated.
However, since the inputs pointed to Maoist presence near the Tultuli village in Dantewada, as well as the Nendur village neighbouring Narayanpur, the battle-hardened DRG forces had to spread out to encircle the entire area. The DRG and STF personnel, officials said, walked nearly 25 kilometres in the dead of the night to reach the site where the Maoists hid around 7 am Friday.
Additional Superintendent of Police (Operations) in Dantewada Smruthik Rajanala led the operation, taking the lead in coordinating with the forces from Narayanpur under Deputy Superintendent of Police Prashant Dewangan.
“Just before taking our positions, (Maoist) sympathisers got to know, and the age-old tried and tested technique of bursting crackers to alert the Maoists was used. But we were ready for it,” ASP Rajanala told ThePrint. Although he did not reveal the exact improvisation by his team to outfox the Maoists, he said that the period of anxious waiting ended with direct firing on the security forces.
Unlike a previous operation in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker, where leftover food plates confirmed Maoist presence in the area, the forces directly spotted Maoists this time. “Such was the authenticity of the intelligence that we spotted the Maoists within a 10-km range of the area where they were reported to be present. They were encircled, and the forces waited for them to open fire at us,” a senior official said.
The exchange of fire, which began around 11 am Friday, went on intermittently till 6.30 pm when pitch darkness prevailed in the Abujhmad forest, where sunlight struggles to penetrate the canopy of trees.
After the exchange of fire ended and the forest fell silent, the security forces were in for another long wait. Officials said there was every chance of retaliation at night, so the search and combing was on hold at night. It started only around 9 am Saturday when the security establishment also sent in reinforcements in the form of troops of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
“Reinforcement was essential because ambush and targeted attacks while returning with bodies is one of the most common methods of Maoists, who hide themselves in darkness,” another security official said.
According to the Bastar range police, the identification of 22 suspected Maoists, including 13 women, has been completed, but nine bodies remain unidentified.
Abujhmad, the strongest base of Naxals
Security forces in Chhattisgarh have begun to change the doctrine of anti-naxal operations this year, officials said. The approach has changed from “attacking and leaving” to penetrating areas and setting up permanent or semi-permanent control.
“Earlier the Maoists used to operate with a no-boundary approach. We are giving it back with the same approach. In this case, the input was developed and confirmed in Dantewada, but the Narayanpur district police were roped in for better control over the area that the Maoists were believed to be present in. The coordination and no-boundary approach helped in (executing a) quick operation, and the return of forces from the encounter site. If Maoists can operate like the entire forest is theirs, why can’t security forces operate with the same doctrine?” a senior official said.
Inspector General of Police for Bastar Range, Sundarraj P. highlighted Saturday that the coordination, such as intelligence sharing and coordination on the ground, between security forces at the state and central levels has improved.
“As a part of the ongoing offensive operational strategy in 2024, a series of anti-naxal operations were conducted in the core of Abujhmad and its periphery. These operations have dealt a significant blow to the Maoist activities in the region,” IG Sundarraj Pattilingam said. “Our objective is to ensure that Maoists have no safe zone in Abujhmad or any other region in Bastar. Now, the Maoist leadership and the cadre have only option — shun violence and join the mainstream.”
What has established the success of the ongoing anti-naxal doctrine is the number of Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee members neutralised this year, a senior official said. In the operation Friday, Neeti alias Urmila, who joined the Maoists some two decades ago, was eliminated. A resident of Bijapur, Neeti was heading the East Bastar division of the Maoist cadre till some time ago in Bastar, officials said.
The DKSZC is the CPI(Maoist) ideological wing that takes policies and operational decisions, apart from providing shelter to militias in areas where security forces are yet to reach.
Neeti is the fourth DKSZC member to be eliminated so far this year. Earlier last month, ThePrint reported that Randhir, another Maoist commander, who had a bounty of Rs 25 lakh on his head and belonged to the DKSZC, was killed on the border between Dantewada and Bijapur.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)