On December 11, 2024, Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadres killed a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker, Kudiam Mado (35) in Somanpalli village under Farsegarh Police Station limits in the Bijapur District of the Bastar division of Chhattisgarh. A group of Maoists stormed into Mado’s house, dragged him outside, and strangled him to death. In a pamphlet found at the spot, the Maoists’ National Park Area Committee took responsibility for the murder and claimed Mado was acting as a ‘police informer.’
On December 8, 2024, CPI-Maoist cadres killed a woman, Yalam Sukra (40), accusing her of acting as a Police informer, at the Loded village in the Madded area of Bijapur District. She was earlier abducted on December 7, along with her husband, Ramaiya Yalam. A Maoist leaflet found close to Sukra’s body read,
Sukra was in touch with police since 2017 and informed them about the movement of cadres. Between 2017 and 2024, she was warned four times not to work as a police informer, but she ran to the police and tipped them and the Telangana Greyhounds about our movement recently, which ended up killing seven Naxals [Left Wing Extremists, LWEs]. Hence, she has been killed at a ‘jan adalat’ [People’s/ Kangaroo Court organized by the Maoists].
On December 6, 2024, CPI-Maoist cadres killed an Anganwadi (rural child care centre) worker, Laxmi Padam, accusing her of working as a ‘police informer.’ Padam was strangled in front of her family at Timapur village in the Basaguda region of Bijapur District. Laxmi was with her family when 10 Maoists in People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA) uniform barged in, dragged her out, and thrashed her. Her sons and mother tried to save her, but they were brutally thrashed and forced to watch Laxmi being choked to death. The Maoists dumped her body on the porch and walked back into the jungle. She was a relative of the village Sarpanch (head of the Panchayat, a village-level local self-Government institution) and was threatened by Maoists twice in the past. Police found a handwritten Maoist leaflet where the ‘Madded area committee’ said they killed Laxmi because of her “proximity with Police and because she acted as a police informer.”
On the same day, CPI-Maoist cadres abducted and killed two former Sarpanches, Suklu Parsa, who was with the BJP’s Kisan Morcha in the Bhairamgarh block, and Sukram Avlam, former Sarpanch of Kader village, in separate incidents in Bijapur District. In pamphlets left behind, the Maoists claimed that both acted as ‘Police informers’ and helped the Police in setting up a security base camp. The Maoists’ Bhairamgarh area committee claimed responsibility for Parsa’s killing. The Maoists also threatened BJP workers in the area with dire consequences and asked them to quit the party.
According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), the Naxalites (Left Wing Extremists) have killed at least 75 civilians (52 in Chhattisgarh; 12 in Jharkhand; three each in Maharashtra, Odisha, and Telangana; and one each in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar) in LWE-related incidents across the country in 2024 (all data till December 15). During the corresponding period of 2023, at least 59 civilians were executed (36 in Chhattisgarh; 13 in Jharkhand; five in Maharashtra; three in Odisha; and one each in Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh). Another two civilians were executed (one each in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand) in the remaining period of 2023, taking the total to 61 civilians killed across the country through 2023.
The increase in fatalities in the civilian category, a key indicator of security in conflict zones, indicate that the civilian population across all the LWE-affected states continued to be at risk. The data reflected a significant increase of 27.11 per cent in the civilian fatalities in LWE-linked violence across the country in 2024, as compared to 2023. Civilian fatalities have recorded a cyclical trend, on a year-on-year basis, since March 6, 2000, when SATP started documenting data on LWE-linked violence across the country. A maximum of 630 civilian fatalities was recorded in 2010, while a low of 53 was recorded in 2022.
According to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA), the Naxalites have killed civilians for a variety of reasons. Most prominently, they kill those who do not yield to their ideology, as also to create a power and governance vacuum in rural areas. Further, in order to instill a sense of fear in their areas of activity, the Naxalites kill civilians after branding, or accusing them of being, ‘police informers.’ Likewise, so-called ‘class enemies’ are also selectively killed. Moreover, the Naxalites believe that their ‘movement’ has been compromised by the leakage of information by ‘police informers’ and that this has resulted in an increased number of fatalities among their leaders/cadres over the years. Significantly, since March 6, 2000, the Naxalites have killed at least 4,077 civilians across the country (all data till December 15, 2024). All these killings often create conditions in which the kin of the victims potentially turn against the Naxalites.
Of the 4,077 civilian fatalities inflicted, the Naxalites branded at least 908 as ‘Police informers’ [Chhattisgarh (257), Odisha (166), Andhra Pradesh (156), Maharashtra (87), Bihar (49), West Bengal (27), Madhya Pradesh (11), Telangana (10), and two each in Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh], and killed them.
In order to discredit the democratic setup of the country and weaken administration, the Naxalites have killed as many as 65 Sarpanches, [25 in Chhattisgarh, 10 in Odisha, nine in Maharashtra, seven each in Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand, six in Bihar, and one in Telangana]. The Naxalites have also killed as many as 363 politicians, [132 in West Bengal, 105 in Andhra Pradesh, 48 in Chhattisgarh, 33 in Jharkhand, 19 in Bihar, 16 in Odisha, six in Maharashtra, two in Karnataka, and one each in Telangana and Uttar Pradesh].
Moreover, to instill fear among civilians and effectively check potential collaborators with the Security Forces (SFs) from passing on information on their activities, movements, and presence, the Naxalites have killed at least 244 civilians [81 in Chhattisgarh, 62 in Odisha, 51 in Jharkhand, 20 in Bihar, 12 in Maharashtra, 10 in West Bengal, six in Andhra Pradesh, and two in Telangana] by hacking/slitting their throats to death. At least 81 civilians [34 in Jharkhand, 16 in Chhattisgarh, 11 in Maharashtra, eight in Odisha, seven in Bihar, three in Madhya Pradesh, and two in Andhra Pradesh] were shot dead.
Ironically, the Naxalites in their ‘Resolutions of 4th PB meeting (for PMs)’ held from April 1-9, 2006, have categorically stated, “ We must be selective in hitting the targets and should ensure that innocent civilians do not become victims.” Nevertheless, the Naxalites have killed thousands of innocent civilians, including adivasis (tribals), whose ‘cause’ they profess to espouse. Despite their misdeeds, moreover, the Naxalites appeal to the civilians to join and support their movement on the grounds that they are fighting for the welfare of the people.
On November 6, 2024, through posters in the name of CPI-Maoist pasted on the wall of Somar Mahali’s ration shop near Giddi Basti Tehratad turn in Ramgarh District of Jharkhand, the Naxalites thus appealed, “Establish your rights on water, forest, and land through armed struggle and not votes.” On one side of the poster was the declaration of Adivasi Gaurav Diwas (Tribal Pride Day); on the other side the poster declared that the tribals would be massacred under Operation Kagar and the death penalty would be given to ‘police informers.’ In another poster, the Naxalites stated that the election season was in the air, the election frog had come, there is a counter-revolutionary war on the people, so the people’s resistance movement must be intensified and expanded, and the work of strengthening the PLGA joint front on a large scale must be expanded, as the Maoists would fight, arms in hand, for true respect and rights. They demanded that the people boycott the sixth Assembly elections of Jharkhand, and also that the government ensure that 90 per cent of jobs in coal mining companies go to locals. They declared that ‘New India’ and ‘Developed India’ were lies, and that, in order to build a new democratic India, a large number of young men and women should be recruited in the PLGA. The Maoists demanded, further, that coal mining should be stopped without giving proper compensation and permanent employment to the landowners; that the BJP’s conspiracy to build a fascist Hindu nation under the guise of the slogan ‘New India’ and ‘Developed India’ be politically exposed; and that the class struggle and guerilla war should be expanded and intensified.
The Naxalites have faced severe losses, including at leadership levels, due to aggressive SF consolidation in their areas of erstwhile domination. As their grip weakens, they have targeted civilians, both to ensure that SFs are not able to secure operational information, as well as to boost the morale of their own cadres by creating panic and to reinforcing their terror and presence. As their areas of dominance shrink, and their power fades, the Maoists are likely to increasingly direct their violence against hapless civilians.
