Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday chaired two crucial meetings in Raipur on Naxalism and met the family members of a police officer killed in an IED blast, officials said.
He asserted that the country would be free from Naxalism by March 31, 2026, an official statement said.
Shah first chaired an Inter-State Security Coordination Meeting on Naxalism with Director Generals of Police (DGPs) and Additional DGPs and senior officials from seven states – Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and Odisha.
The second was a review meeting on the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) situation in Chhattisgarh, the statement said.
Reiterating that there would be no let-up in the momentum achieved by security forces, Shah said anti-Naxal operations would continue even during the rains.
Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, Deputy CM Vijay Sharma, who also holds the Home portfolio, Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Director of the Intelligence Bureau Tapan Deka, and several other senior officials of Central Armed Police Forces attended the meeting at a hotel in Nava Raipur Atal Nagar.
Shah lauded the Sai government for giving a new momentum to a “previously stalled” anti-Naxal campaign and guiding it, besides boosting the morale of security forces, it said.
Deputy CM Sharma later told mediapersons that the Union minister reviewed all issues (related to security and anti-Naxal operations) and shared insights about carrying forward the campaign during monsoon.
Shah also met the family members of Additional Superintendent of Police Akash Rao Girepunje, who died when an IED (improvised explosive device) planted by Maoists exploded in Sukma district on June 9, and assured them of all possible assistance, he said.
When asked about Shah’s scheduled visit to a camp of the Border Security Force (BSF) in Narayanpur district of Bastar region on Monday, Sharma said, “Due to tomorrow’s rain forecast, the tour is unlikely to take place.” A team of commanders of security forces has been called in Raipur. “Shah ji is likely to meet them in Raipur,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Shah laid the foundation stones for the National Forensic Science University (NFSU) campus and a Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Chhattisgarh’s Nava Raipur Atal Nagar.
He also virtually inaugurated the transit (temporary) campus of NFSU in Raipur.
Shah said Naxalites won’t get respite during monsoon as operations against them will continue during rains, even as he ruled out talks and appealed to the ultras to lay down arms and join the journey of development.
Since January last year, more than 400 Maoist ultras have been gunned down by security forces in separate encounters in the state, the most notable being the killing of Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju (70), the general secretary and topmost operative of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist), in Bastar on May 21.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)
