The Crossbill News Desk
In a significant blow to the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist), its general secretary and top-most leader Nambala Keshava Rao was killed in a joint security operation in the dense forests of Abujhmad in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district on Wednesday morning.
Alongside Rao, also known by his alias Basavaraju, 26 other Maoist cadres were killed.
This marks the first time in the Maoist movement’s four-decade history that its general secretary has been killed in an encounter.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi confirmed Rao’s death and praised the security forces for the operation.
“Proud of our forces for this remarkable success. Our Government is committed to eliminating the menace of Maoism and ensuring a life of peace and progress for our people,” he posted on X.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah hailed the operation as a “landmark achievement in the battle to eliminate Naxalism.”
In a statement, he said, “Today, in an operation in Narayanpur, Chhattisgarh, our security forces have neutralized 27 dreaded Maoists, including Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basavaraju, the general secretary of CPI-Maoist, topmost leader, and the backbone of the Naxal movement. This is the first time in three decades of Bharat's battle against Naxalism that a general secretary-ranked leader has been neutralized by our forces. I applaud our brave security forces and agencies for this major breakthrough.”
Security forces have so far recovered the bodies of all 27 Maoists along with a large cache of weapons from the encounter site.
The operation was based on intelligence inputs about the presence of senior Maoist leaders, including central committee and Polit Bureau members, in the Abujhmad region — also referred to by Maoists as “Maad division.”
Teams from the District Reserve Guard (DRG) units of Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur, and Kondagaon districts were deployed for the high-intensity operation.
According to Inspector General of Police (Bastar range) Sundarraj P., the encounter followed days of combing and surveillance. Several Maoist cadres are believed to be injured or dead in addition to those confirmed.
The Maoist leader's killing comes weeks after a similar major operation in the Karregutta hills near the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border, where 31 Maoists were killed.
Keshava Rao, 68, had led the CPI (Maoist) since 2018 after the retirement of his predecessor Muppala Lakshmana Rao (alias Ganapathi). A native of Jitannapeta village in Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam district, Rao had a background in engineering and was pursuing his M.Tech at the Regional Engineering College (now NIT Warangal) when he joined the People’s War Group (PWG) in the 1980s.
An expert in guerrilla tactics and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), Rao was considered the architect of several high-profile attacks, including the deadly Chintalnar ambush in 2020 that killed 75 CRPF personnel and the 2013 Jhiram Ghati attack in Bastar, where several senior Congress leaders were assassinated.
He carried a bounty of Rs 1.5 crore on his head and operated under various aliases, including Ganganna, Krishna, Vijay, Keshav, and Umesh. At the time of his death, he was head of the Maoists’ central military commission, a member of the politburo, and held significant operational command across central India.
While the government has celebrated the operation as a major victory, CPI (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, a parliamentary left party, condemned the killing, alleging it was part of a pattern of “extra-judicial killings” now legitimised under the banner of Operation Kagar.
“From the celebratory post of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, it is clear that the state is spearheading Operation Kagar as an extra-judicial extermination campaign and taking credit for killing citizens and suppressing Adivasi protests against corporate plunder and militarisation in the name of combating Maoism. We appeal to all justice-loving Indians to insist on a judicial probe into the massacre and demand an immediate end to the military operation, especially when the Maoists have declared a unilateral ceasefire,” the party said in a statement.
The encounter signals one of the most significant setbacks for the Maoist insurgency in recent years and marks a turning point in the state’s long-running anti-Naxal operations.
Alongside Rao, also known by his alias Basavaraju, 26 other Maoist cadres were killed.
This marks the first time in the Maoist movement’s four-decade history that its general secretary has been killed in an encounter.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi confirmed Rao’s death and praised the security forces for the operation.
“Proud of our forces for this remarkable success. Our Government is committed to eliminating the menace of Maoism and ensuring a life of peace and progress for our people,” he posted on X.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah hailed the operation as a “landmark achievement in the battle to eliminate Naxalism.”
In a statement, he said, “Today, in an operation in Narayanpur, Chhattisgarh, our security forces have neutralized 27 dreaded Maoists, including Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basavaraju, the general secretary of CPI-Maoist, topmost leader, and the backbone of the Naxal movement. This is the first time in three decades of Bharat's battle against Naxalism that a general secretary-ranked leader has been neutralized by our forces. I applaud our brave security forces and agencies for this major breakthrough.”
Security forces have so far recovered the bodies of all 27 Maoists along with a large cache of weapons from the encounter site.
The operation was based on intelligence inputs about the presence of senior Maoist leaders, including central committee and Polit Bureau members, in the Abujhmad region — also referred to by Maoists as “Maad division.”
Teams from the District Reserve Guard (DRG) units of Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur, and Kondagaon districts were deployed for the high-intensity operation.
According to Inspector General of Police (Bastar range) Sundarraj P., the encounter followed days of combing and surveillance. Several Maoist cadres are believed to be injured or dead in addition to those confirmed.
The Maoist leader's killing comes weeks after a similar major operation in the Karregutta hills near the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border, where 31 Maoists were killed.
Keshava Rao, 68, had led the CPI (Maoist) since 2018 after the retirement of his predecessor Muppala Lakshmana Rao (alias Ganapathi). A native of Jitannapeta village in Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam district, Rao had a background in engineering and was pursuing his M.Tech at the Regional Engineering College (now NIT Warangal) when he joined the People’s War Group (PWG) in the 1980s.
An expert in guerrilla tactics and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), Rao was considered the architect of several high-profile attacks, including the deadly Chintalnar ambush in 2020 that killed 75 CRPF personnel and the 2013 Jhiram Ghati attack in Bastar, where several senior Congress leaders were assassinated.
He carried a bounty of Rs 1.5 crore on his head and operated under various aliases, including Ganganna, Krishna, Vijay, Keshav, and Umesh. At the time of his death, he was head of the Maoists’ central military commission, a member of the politburo, and held significant operational command across central India.
While the government has celebrated the operation as a major victory, CPI (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, a parliamentary left party, condemned the killing, alleging it was part of a pattern of “extra-judicial killings” now legitimised under the banner of Operation Kagar.
“From the celebratory post of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, it is clear that the state is spearheading Operation Kagar as an extra-judicial extermination campaign and taking credit for killing citizens and suppressing Adivasi protests against corporate plunder and militarisation in the name of combating Maoism. We appeal to all justice-loving Indians to insist on a judicial probe into the massacre and demand an immediate end to the military operation, especially when the Maoists have declared a unilateral ceasefire,” the party said in a statement.
The encounter signals one of the most significant setbacks for the Maoist insurgency in recent years and marks a turning point in the state’s long-running anti-Naxal operations.
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