The Union government on Tuesday told Parliament that 335 “Left-wing extremists” had been killed, while 2,167 others had surrendered in 2025.
Additionally, 942 Left-wing extremists had been arrested this year, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai told the Lok Sabha.
Overall 1,841 such persons had been killed, over 16,000 had been arrested, while 9,588 others had surrendered since 2014.
Rai was answering questions posed by Bharatiya Janata Party MPs Darshan Singh Choudhary, Haribhai Patel and Mahesh Kashyap.
The minister said that since 2014-’15, Rs 3,523.4 crore had been released for operations against Left-wing extremism in the country. The funds were allocated for training security forces, rehabilitating surrendered cadres and giving compensation to the families of those killed in Left-wing extremist violence.
The Union government has vowed to end Maoism by March 31, 2026.
In October, the Union home ministry said that the number of districts across states affected by “Left-wing extremism” has come down to 11 from 18 in March.
In 2025, the number of “most affected” districts has also come down from six to three, it added. These are Bijapur, Sukma and Narayanpur in Chhattisgarh.
In the course of the Centre’s anti-Maoist offensive this year, key Maoist leaders like Madvi Hidma have been killed, while others like Vikas Nagpure alias Anant and Mallojula Venugopal Rao, alias Bhupathi have surrendered.
A report by Malini Subramaniam for Scroll on Hidma’s killing noted that in the Andhra Pradesh village closest to where Hidma was killed, no one heard gunfire.
She had earlier reported that while many of those killed in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region in 2024 were declared by the police to be reward-carrying Maoists, several families dispute the claim. The families claim that the persons killed were civilians.
Civil liberties groups and Opposition parties have also questioned some of these killings, alleging that they constitute “fake encounters”.
Also read: In Andhra village closest to where Maoist commander Hidma was killed, no one heard gunfire
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