On 16th January, the Indian security forces took up a big operation in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district. At least a dozen Maoists were gunned down by the armed forces, while none of the security personnel suffered any casualty. The operation was carried out ten days after the IED blast in Bijapur that killed eight security personnel.
The area across Bijapur, Dantewada and Sukhama districts in Chhattisgarh state is considered to be a Maoist-intensive area. In the past year, new security camps for armed Maoists saw an increase. Chhattisgarh is one of the ten Indian states of the Red Corridor where Naxalite groups operate. These states include Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, and West Bengal.
According to a senior police officer, the encounter occurred around nine in the morning, when the joint team of security personnel received a tip about the presence of a Maoist group in the forest area. Soon after the information was received, a team comprising a contingent from District Reserve Guards (DRG), a battalion of Cobra commandos, a Battalion for Resolute Action and Elite Jungle Warfare ( a unit of the Central reserved police forces trained in forest armed warfare) and the 29th battalion of CRPF was constituted. The armed team exchanged fire with the Maoists till evening.
The Maoist Ideology
The monist ideology, which aligns with communism, was developed by a Chinese philosopher called Mao Tse-Tung. The doctrine understands the capturing of state power through a combination of armed insurgency, mass mobilisation and raising class consciousness.
In a poor country, like India, many decide to take up arms against the government in the face of exploitation, caste discrimination, sexual abuse, genocide, or poverty. Their stance on Toppling the government to attain freedom and equality has been under a tight lens since the end of 2023. Last year, a total of 219 allegiant maoists were gunned down while 38 maoists were killed in a single encounter that took place in Abujhmad forest last October.
