Govt committed to establishing peace in Naxal-affected region: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the killing of 31 Naxalites along the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border underscores that the government's campaign to root out left-wing extremism is moving in the right direction. In a post on X, Modi said his government is committed to establishing peace in the Naxal-affected region and connecting it to the mainstream of development. Home Minister Amit Shah had earlier said the security forces achieved a historic breakthrough in the resolve to make the country Naxal-free with the killing of 31 notorious Naxalites in the Karregutta hills along the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border.
Thirty-one Maoists, including 16 female Maoists, have been killed in an anti-Maoist operation that lasted for about twenty-one days on Karregutta hill, situated on the Telangana border in the Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh. In a press conference held in Bijapur on Wednesday, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Director General Gyanendra Pratap Singh, Chhattisgarh Director General of Police Arun Dev Gautam and Bijapur Superintendent of Police Jitendra Kumar Yadav said that a total of twenty-one encounters took place during this operation, which was conducted from April 21 to the 11th of this month. During this period, a total of thirty-five weapons, including self-loading rifles (SLRs), semi-automatic weapons, and four hundred and fifty IEDs, were recovered. Apart from this, two hundred and fourteen bunkers and Maoist hideouts were destroyed, and about twelve thousand kilograms of ration was also recovered. Of the Maoists killed in this operation, twenty-eight have been identified. A reward of one crore seventy-two lakh rupees had been declared on them. CRPF DG Gyanendra Pratap Singh said that in order to fulfill the government’s resolve to make the country Naxal-free by March 2026, the central security forces, in collaboration with the state police, are continuously conducting anti-Maoist operations.