Bhopal News: No Withdrawal Of Forces From Erstwhile Naxal-Hit Areas

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Union Ministry of Home Affairs had set the deadline of March 31, 2026 to make the nation Naxal-free and chief minister Mohan Yadav had declared the state free of the menace in December 2025.

However, the police headquarters will not withdraw more than 4000 security personnel deployed in erstwhile Naxal-affected areas.

The challenge bedore the security personnel is to ensure that people of rebellious and extremist mindset do not gather again in these areas.

Three districts in Madhya Pradesh, Balaghat, Mandla and Dindori were Naxal-affected earlier. The northern Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh (MMC) zone is claimed to be Naxal-free, but this has brought new challenges for the police and also the local government to ensure extremist ideology does not take root here again, as per officials.

For the first time in more than three decades in the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh (MMC) Special Zone, no Naxal activities have been seen in the past three months.

The CPI(Maoist) special MMC Zone comprises bordering districts of three neighbouring states – Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh including Balaghat district and some parts of Mandla district (MP), Rajnandgaon and Kabirdham districts of Chhattisgarh and Gondia district of Maharashtra.

Officials informed that the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) activists who escaped in police encounters and the surrendered Naxals may now focus on spreading their rebellious and extremist ideology democratically in the same jungles where they operated secretly for decades.

The Naxal cadres in MMC Zone may have petered out, but not completely died out. Through crack intelligence, the police will have to ensure that the cadres do not regroup again with fresh recruits.

Having cleared the armed Naxal cadres from the jungles on three states trisection, the security forces will have to ensure their dominance in the area, by winning the trust of the locals. The police and government will have to use confidence-building measures (CBMs) and big development initiatives in the remotest villages of the MMC Zone to ensure that the armed struggle is not revived.

In the Naxal-affected areas, 1,188 security personnel of Hawk Force, 2,111 from CRPF, 110 OF Cobra Battalion, 886 personnel of SSU and 2,640 of district force are involved in protecting the people from Naxals.

No plans of withdrawal

ADG, Anti-Naxal Operation, KP Venketshwar Rao told the Free Press, There is no plan to withdraw forces from the erstwhile Naxal-hit areas, although the extremists have surrendered. However, the forces are on the alert to face any untoward situation if created by any anti-national element.