3-week anti-Maoist op ends with 31 dead, families line up to collect the bodies

Indian Express

14-05-2025

Thirty-one Maoists were killed in the massive operations around Karregutta hills on the Chhattisgarh-Telangana border, which went on for nearly three weeks before being called off, The Indian Express has learnt.
According to a senior officer in the Ministry of Home Affairs, the operation was started on April 21 after multiple agencies received inputs that top Maoist leaders and commanders, including Hidma Madvi, were spotted in the Karregutta hills.
It saw the deployment of more than 25,000 security personnel backed by Indian Air Force helicopters and drones.
'A meeting was held of senior officers of the CRPF and Telangana and Chhattisgarh police, where they prepared a strategy. Senior MHA officials were in constant touch, and the forces were given around 15 days (to conduct the operation),' said a source.
During the operation, three personnel from the elite Greyhounds force were killed in an IED blast in Telangana. Two security force personnel lost their limbs in separate blasts, while half a dozen suffered injuries.
'The Maoist senior leaders, including Hidma, managed to escape. Initially, there was a plan to keep this operation on, but it is their hardcore area. It's not safe for security personnel to wait there during this weather, so we decided to end the operation for now,' the source said.
The aim of the operation was to flush out key Maoist leaders safeguarded by the formidable Battalion No. 1 of the People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA).
On Monday, in a short press brief, the Chhattisgarh police said 20 Maoists have been identified and the bodies of 11 have been handed over to their families. The Indian Express has learnt that the dead include a 16-year-old and several women.
A number for each body
To identify the bodies, police clicked photos as soon as they were discovered and assigned a specific number to each.
Six-seven bodies were handed over to the families on Monday. The families of three – Madvi Joga, 22, Somdi Tamo, 18, and Motoo Mudam, 16 – told The Indian Express they were illiterate.
The boy's father, Mudam Hunga, a farmer and resident of Bajarpara in Kondapalli village, said, 'Six months ago, I scolded him for not helping us with farming and for roaming with his friends, which angered him and he left. Later, I found that he had joined the sangathan (organisation, a term used to refer to Maoists).'
'On the night of May 7, a District Reserve Guard personnel informed me that my son is dead. I rushed to the Bijapur district hospital (75 km from Kondapalli) on May 8, but was told the post-mortem is yet to be done, so I returned. I came today (May 12) to collect his body,' he said.
Hunga first saw a photo with the number 9, and then body number 9 was handed to him. It was put on a tractor along with Tamo Somdi's body. She hailed from the same village and joined the Naxals in December 2022.
Her brother Joga Tamo said, 'One day, we left for farming, leaving her alone at home to cook. When we returned, she was gone. We had been pressuring her to get married, but she was not interested. There was no other reason she would have left. She came home a year ago and had lunch with us, but refused to quit the movement.'