Fourteen Maoists, including five women and a commander carrying a bounty of ₹1 crore, have been gunned down in the past 24 hours by security forces inside a forest along the Chhattisgarh-Odisha border that is considered an impregnable rebel redoubt.

Among those killed in the closely guarded operation was Jairam Reddy alias Chalapati, a senior member of the central committee, the highest decision-making body of the Maoists. The identity of the remaining cadres is yet to be ascertained.

Union home minister Amit Shah said in a social media post on Tuesday morning: “Another mighty blow to Naxalism. Our security forces achieved major success towards building a Naxal-free Bharat. The CRPF, SoG Odisha and Chhattisgarh police neutralised 14 Naxalites in a joint operation along the Odisha-Chhattisgarh border. With our resolve for a Naxal-free India and the joint efforts of our security forces, Naxalism is breathing its last today.”

With the latest encounter, at least 40 Maoists have been killed by the forces this year in Chhattisgarh. A total of 219 insurgents were killed in 2024 after anti-Maoist operations intensified in Chhattisgarh in late 2023.

Sources in the security establishment said the incursions into the forest — located at a strategic point where the borders of Chhattisgarh and Odisha converge — appeared to have jolted the Maoists. Over 2,000 troops drawn from the CRPF’s elite CoBRA squad and Chhattisgarh and Odisha police were deployed for the operation.

“The security forces launched the operation based on intelligence inputs that around 50 to 60 Maoists, including Chalapati, were holed up in the Kularighat reserve forests of Chhattisgarh, about 5km from Odisha’s Nuapada district. They were planning a major attack on security forces deployed in the area,” said a security official with
the Union home ministry, adding that the place falls under the “liberated zone” of the Maoists.

A security officer who suffered injuries is being treated at the hospital and is said to
be stable.

The home ministry official said that the operation was retribution for “bloodletting”, referring to the massacre of eight Chhattisgarh police commandos and their driver earlier this month. He said the security forces had launched a massive offensive, aided by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV drones), and that the counter-offensive would continue.

Sources said the CRPF bosses prepared the blueprint for the operation and the local chiefs of the central force and the Chhattisgarh and Odisha police supervised the offensive. The security forces used UAVs for reconnaissance in Maoist hotbeds before launching the operation.

“Security forces had received a tip-off that some top Maoist leaders and their squad members had assembled in a forested area to draw up new subversive plans. When the rebels were surrounded by the police and the CRPF, they opened fire. Security forces retaliated and the gun battle lasted several hours,” said a CRPF official.

He said two women Maoists were killed during a joint operation on Monday morning along the Chhattisgarh-Odisha border while the remaining were killed in the small hours of Tuesday.

A large cache of firearms, ammunition and IEDs, including a self-loading rifle, were recovered from the encounter site. Twelve more Maoists were killed in another exchange of fire that took place late on Monday night and continued till the early hours of Tuesday in a forest under the Mainpur police station area of Chhattisgarh along the state’s border with Odisha.

Sources said more rebels could have died and security forces had seized massive arms and ammunition. “A massive search operation is under way in the area,” said an official.

Chhattisgarh chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai said: “Strengthening the resolve of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah to end Naxalism in the country and the state by March 2026, the security forces have been continuously achieving success and moving rapidly towards the target. This success of the soldiers is commendable. I salute their bravery.”