NewsHail
23 May 2025
A top Maoist leader was killed in a fight with Indian security forces in Chhattisgarh.
Nambala Keshava Rao, also called Basavaraju, was one of 27 rebels killed on Wednesday. Indian Home Minister Amit Shah said this. One police officer also died in the fight.
Shah said this is the first time in 30 years a Maoist leader as senior as Rao was killed by the government.
Parts of Chhattisgarh have long seen a rebel fight. The rebels say the government has ignored them for years. The Indian government wants to end the fight by March 2026.
Rao was an engineer. He was the general secretary of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). He was on the most wanted list of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), India’s anti-terror agency.
Vivekanand Sinha, a top police officer in Chhattisgarh, said the gunfight started in Narayanpur district. The police had a tip that senior Maoist leaders were there.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X that he was "proud of our forces for this great success."
The Communist Party of India said the killings were wrong. They want a fair inquiry.
Last month, the Indian government started a big military action called Black Forest. It targets the Maoists.
Shah said 54 rebels have been caught, and 84 have given up in Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Maharashtra.
The government started this after the Maoists said they want talks if the army stops attacks and pulls back. But Chhattisgarh officials said talks must happen without conditions.
The Maoists follow Mao Zedong, a Chinese leader. Their fight started in West Bengal in the late 1960s. Now they are active in more than 200 of India’s 600 districts.
The rebels control big forest areas in a "red corridor" from north-east to central India.
Recent military actions pushed rebels back to forests. Violence has dropped.
But fights between police and rebels still happen often. Many people die every year.
Last year, security forces killed about 287 rebels, mostly in Chhattisgarh. More than 10,000 people have died since the 1960s.
