Twenty-two suspected Maoists and one security personnel were killed in two separate gunfights in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur and Kanker districts, ANI reported on Thursday.

Sundarraj P, the inspector general of police for Bastar Range, said that security forces killed 18 suspected Maoists in a gunfight that began at 7 am on Thursday near the border between Bijapur and Dantewada districts.

One Bijapur District Reserve Guard member lost his life in the gunfight, ANI quoted unidentified police officers as saying.

In the Kanker and Narayanpur border areas, four suspected Maoists were killed in a gunfight near the Koroskodo village in the Chhotebethiya police station area, Sundarraj added. The gunfight was still underway, he said, adding that a cache of weapons was recovered from the area.

Search operations were underway in both areas, the police officers said.

Later on Thursday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that security forces had killed 22 Maoists in two separate operations in Chhattisgarh.

“The [Narendra] Modi government is moving forward with a ruthless approach against Naxalites and is adopting a zero tolerance policy against those Naxalites who are not surrendering despite all the facilities ranging from surrender to inclusion,” he said on social media. “The country is going to be Naxal-free before 31 March next year.”

In August too, Shah said that Maoism would end in the country by March 31, 2026. “A strong and ruthless strategy is required for launching the last assault against such groups,” he had added.

With these deaths, at least 81 suspected Maoists have been killed in gunfights with security forces this year.

On February 9, 31 suspected Maoists and two security personnel were killed in a gunfight at Indravati National Park in Bijapur.

Sixteen suspected Maoists were killed in the Kulhadighat area of the Udanti-Sitanadi Tiger Reserve, close to Chhattisgarh’s border with Odisha’s Nuapada district on January 21. Twelve were killed in Bijapur on January 16.

In 2024, 217 suspected Maoists were killed by security forces.

Malini Subramaniam has reported for Scroll that while many of those killed in Bastar 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.