Chhattisgarh: 3-Day 'Bastar Tiranga Yatra' Begins from Ex-Maoist Hub Abujhmad

The yatra began from Abujhmad, once the capital of outlawed CPI (Maoist), in Narayanpur district, and is scheduled to end at the Karregutta Hills, the strongest Maoist fort that fell in January this year, in Bijapur district in south Bastar, by crisscrossing the former red corridors which were witness to some of the deadly encounters between the ultras and security forces in the past.

The yatra will cover three districts, Narayanpur, Dantewada, and Bijapur, in south Bastar.

“The forested route, scheduled to be covered by the yatra, has been sanitized with the help of metal detectors and sniffer dogs”, a senior police officer told this newspaper.

Deputy chief minister Vijay Sharma, who holds home portfolio, and forest minister Kedar Kashyap, the local MLA, jointly flagged off the ‘unique’ yatra of motorcycle-borne participants.

“Soil will be collected from places where major encounters took place leading to martyrdom of jawans, during the yatra, for building the proposed memorials for the martyrs in Bastar”, Mr. Kashyap said.

Kicking off the yatra, Mr. Sharma said that the event was conceived to demonstrate to the world that Leftwing Extremism in Bastar is now the thing of the past and peace, not the Maoists, now rule the roost in the ‘length and breadth of Bastar’.

After Chhattisgarh is declared free of Leftwing Extremism on March 31, 2026, the tricolour will be hoisted across the length and breadth of Bastar on the Independence Day on August 15, for the first time, he said.

There were times when the villagers in remote Bastar were forced by the Naxals to hoist black flags on their houses on the occasions of Independence Day and Republic Day, he said and added that Bastar has completely transformed now.

“Wherever I go in Bastar, the local villagers say they now truly feel living in an independent India and liberated from the influence of Maoists”, Mr. Sharma said.