Twenty-seven suspected Maoists were killed in a gunfight with security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Abujhmad region on Wednesday, the police said.

A District Reserve Guard team member was also killed in the gunfight, according to the police.

It is “estimated that several senior-level Maoist cadres have either been killed or seriously injured” in the gunfight, the police stated.

The gunfight took place near Boter village in the Abujhmad region. Abujhmad is a hilly forest area covering the Narayanpur, Bijapur and Dantewada districts of Chhattisgarh.

The police said that the operation was ongoing and that detailed information will be released after it concludes.

With this, more than 185 suspected Maoists have been killed in gunfights with security personnel this year. In 2024, 217 suspected Maoists were killed by security forces.

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

The Union government has repeatedly vowed to eradicate “Left Wing Extremism” in the country by March 31, 2026.

On May 14, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the security forces had killed 31 suspected Maoists since April 21 in Chhattisgarh’s Karregutta hills as part of a counter-insurgency operation.

This was arguably the largest anti-Maoist operation and comes at a time when the insurgent Communist Party of India (Maoist) has repeatedly expressed its willingness to participate in peace talks.

Also read: As Maoists ask for ceasefire, security forces shell hills sheltering top insurgent leaders