A senior police official reported that at least seven Naxals were killed in a confrontation with District Reserve Group (DRG) personnel along the inter-district border of Narayanpur, Dantewada, and Kondagaon. Narayanpur Superintendent of Police Prabhat Kumar stated, “Weapons have been recovered. Operation is underway.” Seven bodies of the Naxals were discovered at the encounter site.
Three Jawans of the Narayanpur DRG, wounded in the Friday night encounter, were airlifted to a hospital from the Gobel area under the East Bastar Division. A joint team of DRG from Narayanpur, Kondagaon, Dantewada, and Jagdalpur, along with the 45th Battalion of ITBP, was conducting an anti-Maoist operation in the Abujhmad area when the Maoists initiated gunfire. The forces promptly retaliated, as confirmed by the police.
Earlier, on June 2, Naxalites set fire to a mobile tower in Durmi village in Narayanpur district. On May 25, security forces encountered and killed two Naxalites in the forests of Jappemarka and Kamkanar in Bijapur. Naxalism remains a persistent challenge in Chhattisgarh for both the state and central governments.
The dense forests and challenging terrain of the region have facilitated Naxal groups in establishing their base and operations in the state. In May, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, in an exclusive interview with ANI, reiterated the government’s commitment to tackling Naxalism, expressing confidence that the country would be free of the issue in the next two to three years.
Shah highlighted the welfare schemes reaching tribal areas, previously deprived of such initiatives, due to efforts made by the BJP-led government. He noted significant progress, with several states like Jharkhand, Bihar, Telangana, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra being declared free of Naxalism, while the issue persists in a few districts of Chhattisgarh.
“I think that in the next 2-3 years, the country will be completely free of the Naxal issue. After the BJP government came to power in Chhattisgarh, within just 4.5 months, 112 Naxals have been neutralized, around 375 have surrendered, and 153 have been arrested…On the contrary, Congress says that fake encounters are being done,” Shah emphasized.
