Seven suspected Maoists were killed in separate gunfights with security forces in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand on Saturday, The New Indian Express reported.

In Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, four suspected Maoists were reportedly killed during a gunfight that broke out in a forested area in the southwestern region of the district.

The clash began in the evening during a search operation launched after intelligence inputs indicated suspected Maoist activity in the area, the police said.

“So far, four bodies of Maoists have been recovered,” P Sundarraj, inspector general of police, Bastar Range was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

Weapons and explosive materials were also recovered from the site, he added.

In a separate incident in Jharkhand’s Gumla district, three suspected Maoists were killed in a gunfight with security forces.

The police said they had received intelligence inputs that members of the Jharkhand Jan Mukti Parishad, a splinter group of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), had assembled in the Ghaghra police station area.

Based on the input, a joint operation was launched by the Jharkhand Jaguar, a special anti-Maoist task force, and the Gumla Police.

“One of the deceased was identified as Dilip Lohra (32) of Belagada in Ghaghra [block in Gumla district],” Gumla Superintendent of Police Haris Bin Zaman was quoted as saying by The New Indian Express. “The identification of the other two deceased is still underway.”

This year, 21 suspected Maoists have been killed across Jharkhand in 14 gunfights with security forces, The New Indian Express reported

In the Bastar region of neighbouring Chhattisgarh, more than 400 suspected Maoists had been killed in 2024-’25, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai had said in June.

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

Malini Subramaniam has reported for Scroll that while many of those killed in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region 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 end Maoism by March 31, 2026.

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