Key Maoist leader Ganesh Uike was killed in a gunfight with security forces in Odisha’s Kandhamal district on Thursday, PTI quoted police officials as saying.
Apart from Uike, who carried a reward of Rs 1.1 crore on his head, three suspected Maoists were also killed in the gunfight, which took place in a forest in the Chakapad police station area.
Uike was the chief of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) in Odisha.
The identities of the three others who were killed are yet to be ascertained.
This came days after the Union government told Parliament that 335 “Left-wing extremists” had been killed, while 2,167 others had surrendered in 2025.
On December 16, Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai told the Lok Sabha that 942 Left-wing extremists had been arrested this year.
Overall 1,841 such persons had been killed, over 16,000 had been arrested, while 9,588 others had surrendered since 2014.
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 Uike and 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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