Amit Shah said intensified security operations and disruption of Maoist funding have weakened Left-Wing Extremism.
The remarks came after a high-level anti-Naxal review meeting in Raipur with central and state officials.
Since January 2024, over 500 Naxalites were killed, 1,900 arrested and 2,500 surrendered in Chhattisgarh.
Amit Shah Says Naxalism To Be Wiped Out By March 31
Security Push, Infra Growth And Financial Crackdown Yield Results: Shah
Summary
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said that security-centric strategy, infrastructure development, and disruption of Maoist financial networks have yielded results in the fight against Left-Wing Extremism, asserting that the menace will be completely eradicated before March 31.
Weeks before the Centre's deadline of March 31 to end the Maoist insurgency, Shah made the comments following his chairing of a high-level security review meeting on Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) in Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh.
The Home Minister posted pictures from the meeting on X.
"Today in Raipur, I held a review meeting with the Chhattisgarh government and officials on anti-Naxal operations. The security-centric strategy, infrastructure development, targeting of the Naxal financial network and the surrender policy have yielded positive results, and Naxalism will be completely eradicated before March 31," he wrote.
According to an official, the meeting was held at a hotel in Nava Raipur Atal Nagar and was attended by Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma, Union Home Secretary, Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), and Special Secretary (Internal Security) in the Ministry of Home Affairs.
He also mentioned the presence of several senior officers and the directors general of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), the Border Security Force (BSF), the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and the states of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Telangana.
The seven districts that make up Chhattisgarh's Bastar region, which borders Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha, have long been regarded as the Maoist stronghold. But in recent years, anti-Naxal operations have increased in the area, significantly undermining the extremist movement.
More than 500 Naxalites, including high-ranking officials like CPI (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshava Rao, also known as Basavaraju, have been killed in clashes in Chhattisgarh since January 2024. At the same time, police say that 1,900 Naxalites were arrested, and more than 2,500 of them turned themselves in.
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