The escalated war on Maoists has seen security forces in Chhattisgarh kill at least 47 Maoists within 3 weeks of January 2025, while it is reported that 250 Maoists were killed in Chhattisgarh in 2024. Amit Shah has set March 2026 as the deadline to make India Maoist-free. This means large-scale proliferation of security camps in Bastar, use of advanced warfare equipment including Israeli drones, and unmitigated extra-judicial violence by the state.
Reportedly, since 2019 a total of 290 security camps have been set up in the LWE affected States, mostly in Chhattisgarh and Odisha. In addition to the 48 security camps established last year, the Central security forces and police aim to establish 88 additional security camps in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected States this year.
This alarming militarisation of Bastar has been met with peaceful and sustained protests by Adivasis against the establishment of security camps in Fifth Schedule Areas without any consultation and consent of the concerned Gram Sabhas, and illegal appropriation of their forests, lands and other resources while also demanding proper schools, health facilities and other basic amenities. The Chhattisgarh government has responded by banning a people's rights organisation like the Moolvasi Bachao Manch, in October 2024, under the provisions of the draconian Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act.
In the name of 'Naxal-mukt Bharat' the BJP-led governments have thus unleashed a campaign of complete militarisation of resource-rich Adivasi areas like Bastar and launch an unbridled war on the Adivasi people and all kinds of protests and people's rights campaigns.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation condemns this policy of militarisation and war and calls upon all justice-loving forces to insist on an immediate halt to this war of extermination and guarantee of a democratic space and environment for the deprived and oppressed Adivasis in Bastar and other areas of Adivasi unrest. The policy of extra-judicial violence against Adivasi protests is totally antithetical to constitutional rule of law, and the government cannot be allowed to get away with such a policy in the name of eliminating Maoists. CPIML demands the release of all human rights activists, leaders of people's movements and innocent Adivasis who have been unjustly incriminated and jailed in false cases.
- Issued by Central Committee of CPI(ML) Liberation on 27 January 2025
