On December 4, 2020, a Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadre was killed in an exchange of fire with the Security Forces (SFs) in a forested area near Hakwa village under Gangaloor Police Station limits in Bijapur District, Chhattisgarh. The body of the Maoist, identified as Arjun, a ‘platoon commander’ of the Gangaloor ‘area committee’ of the Maoists, was recovered along with a firearm and explosives.
On December 2, 2020, two tribal villagers were abducted and subsequently killed by CPI-Maoist cadres in Kamkanar village in Bijapur District. The two victims, Sannu Uika and Sunil Boddu, from Kamkanar village, were being threatened by Maoists over the preceding few months, as they were suspected of supporting the Police.On November 28, 2020, Nitin P. Balerao, an Assistant Commandant of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA), the elite Commando wing of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), was killed and eight personnel, including the second-in-command Dinesh Kumar Singh, were injured in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) blast triggered by cadres of the CPI-Maoist in the Burkapal area in Sukma District.
According to partial data collated by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), the Bastar Division has accounted for at least 123 Maoist-linked fatalities (26 civilians, 35 SF personnel, and 62 Maoists) in the current year, thus far (data till December 13, 2020). During the corresponding period in 2019, the ‘division’ had recorded 102 fatalities (30 civilians, 18 SF personnel, and 54 Maoists). Through 2019, Maoist-linked fatalities in the Division totalled 107 [30 civilians, 18 SF personnel, and 59 Maoists].The Bastar Division, considered to be the last bastion of the Maoists, spans over 40,000 square kilometers, and comprises of seven Districts – Bastar, Bijapur, Dantewada, Kanker, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, and Sukma.
Since March 6, 2000, when SATP started compiling statistics on Left Wing Extremism in India, the Bastar Division has registered at least 3,032 fatalities (787 civilians; 1,028 SF personnel; 1,195 Maoists; and 22 unspecified). The Bastar Division accounted for a whopping 90.72 per cent of the total fatalities recorded in the State (3,342, including 891 civilians; 1,129 SF personnel; 1,298 Maoists, and 24 unspecified (data till December 13, 2020).After a low of 107 fatalities in the Division in 2019, there is evidence of an escalation of activities in 2020. An April 18, 2020, report revealed that the CPI-Maoist organised a gathering of people in their area of influence in Bastar, directing village headmen and others to part with the rations they received from the State Government during the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Abhishek Pallava, SP, Dantewada, thus disclosed, The naxals [Left Wing Extremists] are regularly holding the meetings of tribals in areas cited as their epicentre. We have got inputs from the villagers that the rebels are threatening them and demanding to hand over the BPL [Below Poverty Line] ration which they got under the public distribution system scheme.The villagers were even thrashed publicly during the meeting to instil terror and are forced to comply with their diktat. Also, the Maoists continued to extort money from the local contractors and the collectors of minor forest products to meet their requirements.
Around 60,000 personnel of the State Police and Paramilitary Forces are deployed in the seven Districts of Bastar Division.The Maoists in the Bastar Division remains a major challenge for the State, as well as for the country. This is where the ‘final battle’ against the rebels is set to be won. The Maoists retain significant operational capacities in this region, though these have been substantially eroded by the Security Forces. Nevertheless, the area remains difficult, with the Maoists holding tenaciously on to their last surviving stronghold.
