India –Over 10,000 people have lost their lives in the decades-long insurgency waged by the rebels, who claim to be fighting for the rights of marginalised indigenous people in India’s resource-rich central regions.
The Government forces have stepped up efforts to crush the long-running armed conflict, with some 287 rebels killed in 2024, according to official figures.
The attack that occurred on Monday in the central state of Chhattisgarh took place as soldiers were returning from an anti-Maoist operation on Saturday, where four rebels and a police officer were killed.
According to the Chief of the state police’s anti-Maoist operations,Vivekanand Sinha,“Eight security forces and a driver were killed today when the vehicle in which they were travelling came in contact with a landmine”.
The rebels, also known as Naxalites after the district where their armed campaign began in 1967, were inspired by the Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong.
Around 1,000 suspected Naxalites were arrested and 837 surrendered in 2024.
However, India’s interior minister Amit Shah, warned the Maoist rebels in September to surrender or face an “all-out” assault, saying the government expected to crush the insurgency by early 2026.
Shah, a close confidant of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi,vowed after the latest attack on Monday.
“I promise that this sacrifice of our men won’t go to waste,” Shah said in a statement.
“We will wipe out naxalism from our country by March 2026,” the powerful minister added.
The movement gained in strength and numbers until the early 2000s when New Delhi deployed tens of thousands of security personnel against the rebels in a stretch of territory known as the “Red Corridor”.
The insurgency has been drastically restricted in the area in recent years.
Authorities have since invested millions of dollars in local infrastructure and social projects to combat the Naxalite appeal.
Margret Oshinowo|January 6,2025
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