Post-Maoist Bastar: 8 Senior Cops Shifted In Security Reshuffle

Raipur: Post-Maoism Bastar in Chhattisgarh saw a new security setup with eight senior cops from the region being shifted to state capital on different assignments, in a fresh reshuffle in the state police administration, effected on Friday.

Eight additional superintendents of police (ASP), posted in the districts of Bijapur, Narayanpur, Kanker, Narayanpur, Bastar and Sukma under Bastar division, have been transferred to hold different posts in Raipur.

The eight ASPs were among the 18 Indian Police Service (IPS) officers who were transferred from their posts in the reshuffle, effected in the state police administration on Friday.

The shifting of the second-rung police officers in the districts of Bastar division follows recent transfers of superintendents of police (SPs) of these districts made in the wake of the Leftwing Extremism-hit tribal belt being declared free of armed Maoist activities on March 31, 2026.

Barring Bastar district superintendent of police (SP) Salabh Sinha, all other SPs in Bastar division, comprising seven districts of Bastar, Kanker, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Sukma, Dantewada and Bijapur, were moved out of the region in the post-Maoism period.

Former Bastar range inspector general of police (IGP) P Sunderraj who was in the post almost for a decade, was transferred as IG, National Investigation Agency (NIA), Delhi, soon after the tribal belt became free of Maoist influence.

“The police officers posted in Bastar division during the insurgency period needed to be transferred to other areas to ease off the pressure, under which they were working for a long time, on them. This apart, we want a new security setup in Bastar division to show that the region has now moved on leaving behind its history of red violence”, a senior police officer told this newspaper, unwilling to be quoted.