17 Naxalites killed, four security personnel injured in encounter in Chhattisgarh's Sukma

Raipur: At least 17 Maoists, including 11 women, were on Saturday gunned down in an encounter with security forces in a forest in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district under the south Bastar region, police said. Four jawans were also injured in the anti-Naxal operation. Union home minister Amit Shah lauded the success of the counterinsurgency operation and reiterated the Modi government's resolve to eradicate Naxalism before March 31, 2026.

Top Maoist leader Kuhadami Jagdish, alleged mastermind of the 2013 Jeeram Ghati attack in which 32 people, including 23 frontline leaders of the Chhattisgarh Congress unit, were killed, was among the slain ultras. He carried a bounty of `25 lakhs on his head, a senior police officer said.

“Bodies of 17 Naxals have been recovered at the encounter site. Seven of 17 slain Maoists have so far been identified,” Bastar range inspector-general of police P. Sunderraj told this newspaper. A huge cache of automatic weapons was also recovered, he added.

The Union home minister hailed the Sukma encounter. “Our security agencies have neutralised 16 Naxalites and recovered a massive cache of automatic weapons in the operation in Sukma. Under the leadership of PM Shri @narendramodi Ji, we are resolved to eradicate Naxalism before March 31, 2026. My appeal to those with arms is that weapons and violence cannot bring change; only peace and development can,” Mr Shah posted on X early in the morning. Later in the day, the security forces recovered the body of another slain Naxal from the encounter site in the Sukma forest.

Chhattisgarh chief minister Vushnu Deo Sai also hailed the security personnel for courageously taking on the Maoists, saying that the Sukma operation by the security personnel demonstrated the resolve of our forces to accomplish the target of ending Naxalism by March 2026, set by the Union home ministry.

Acting on specific intelligence inputs on the movement of some senior Maoist leaders along with a group of armed Naxal cadres in the forested village of Upampalli and nearby areas under Kerlapal police station in Sukma district, a joint security party comprising jawans of the district reserve guard (DRG) and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was sent to the area for a search operation, police said.

The search party came under attack by the Maoists in the forest near Upampalli at around 8 am, leading to a fierce gun battle that lasted around seven hours.

Bodies of 17 Maoists, along with automatic weapons such as AK-47s, self-loaded rifles (SLRs), INSAS rifles, .303 rifles, rocket launchers, barrel grenade launchers (BGLs) and huge amounts of explosives were later recovered from the encounter site.

The slain Maoists included secretary of the Darbha division (a dreaded Maoist formation) Jagdish, a member of the special zonal committee, three area committee members and a platoon medical team chief, police said.

The Bastar range I-G said that four jawans, three of DRG and one of CRPF, were injured in the encounter. They were evacuated from the encounter site and admitted to the hospital. They are out of danger now.

“The Darbha division of Maoists, involved in a number of major attacks on security forces in Bastar for the last one-and-a-half decades, is almost wiped out following Saturday’s anti-Naxal operation. It is significant from the counterinsurgency point of view,” a senior Bastar police officer, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told this newspaper.

The Maoist Darbha division comprised Kerlapal, Darbha, Malangir and Katekalyan area committees of Maoists. All these area committees have now almost been decimated, police said.

The Kerlapal area committee was allegedly involved in the abduction of then Sukma district collector Alex Paul Menon in 2012. Mr Menon was released after 13 days in Maoist captivity.

With the killing of 17 Maoists in Saturday’s anti-Naxal operation, a total of 117 Naxals have been eliminated in the Bastar division in the last 87 days, Mr Sunderraj said. The Bastar division comprises seven districts — Bastar, Sukma, Dantewada, Bijapur, Narayanpur, Kanker and Kondagaon.