Papa Rao, believed to be the last active Maoist commander in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region, surrendered along with 17 other cadres in the Bijapur district on Tuesday, the Hindustan Times quoted the state police as saying.

Rao, who was a member of the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee and in charge of the South Sub Zonal Bureau of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), carried a reward of Rs 25 lakh on his head.

His surrender comes a week before the March 31 deadline set by the Union government to end the Maoist conflict.

Apart from Rao, the other Maoists who surrendered included divisional committee members Prakash Madvi and Anil Tati, the Hindustan Times reported.

The police in Bastar said that the 18 Maoists had agreed to shun violence and join the mainstream in a “decisive breakthrough” in the ongoing efforts to end Maoism in the region.

The statement added that the development was evidence that the goal of a Maoist-free Bastar was steadily becoming a reality, the newspaper reported. It added that this is the first time in the history of the Maoist movement in the Dandakaranya region that the organisation is left without an effective leadership.

Rao, who is believed to be between 55 and 60 years of age, is a school dropout who joined the Maoist movement in 1997, The Indian Express reported. He is believed to have been involved in several conspiracies to carry out several attacks.

The Maoist commander had 45 cases against him, including in connection with the biggest Maoist attack in Tadmetla in 2010, when 76 jawans were killed in an ambush, Bijapur Superintendent of Police Jeetendra Kumar Yadav told The Indian Express.

He was also allegedly involved in a Moaist attack in Bijapur’s Ambeli in January 2025. Eight security personnel and a civilian driver were killed then.

Vivekanand Sinha, additional director general (naxal operations) was also quoted as saying by The Indian Express that Rao was “the last important Naxal leader left in the outfit in Chhattisgarh”.

Since 2014, over 10,000 cadres have surrendered across the country, PTI reported. While 2,300 laid down arms in 2025, more than 630 have surrendered in the first three months of 2026, according to the news agency.

In February, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs said that the number of districts affected by “Left-wing extremism” has come down to eight from 11 in October.

These districts include Bijapur, Dantewada, Gariyaband, Kanker, Narayanpur and Sukma in Chhattisgarh, West Singhbhum in Jharkhand, and Kandhamal in Odisha.

In the course of the Union government’s anti-Maoist offensive in 2025, key Maoist leaders like Ganesh Uike and Madvi Hidma have been killed, while others like Vikas Nagpure, alias Anant, and Mallojula Venugopal Rao, alias Bhupathi, have surrendered.

Civil liberties groups and Opposition parties have also questioned some of the killings of reward-carrying Maoists, alleging that they constitute “fake encounters”.

Another key Maoist leader surrenders in Odisha

In Odisha, Maoist leader Sukru, who carried a reward of Rs 55 lakh on his head, along with four other cadres, surrendered before the police in Kandhamal district on Tuesday, PTI quoted Director General of Police YB Khurania as saying.

Khurania said that Sukru, who was a state committee member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), surrendered with an AK-47 rifle. Sukru, who hailed from Malkangiri district, was considered one of the last remaining Maoist leaders active in the state, he added.

Also read: As Maoists retreat, why many fear security forces in Chhattisgarh villages