Hyderabad: At least 27 outlaws of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) were reportedly killed in a fierce gunfight with the security forces in the dense forests of Abhujmad on the tri-junction of Narayanpur-Bijapur-Dantewada districts of Chhattisgarh.

The Maoist party general secretary, Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju, known to be the backbone of the naxal movement, has also been killed.

Basavaraju’s age and looks are still a matter of speculation, with security agencies suggesting he was around 71 years of age. They have only a bundle of old photos from his youth.

“Basavaraju carried a reward of Rs 1 crore on his head in Chhattisgarh. The governments of other states, including Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Telangana, have also announced rewards,” an official said.

The operation was launched two days back following intelligence inputs about the presence of central committee and politburo members of the CPI (Maoists) as well as senior Maad division cadres and Peoples’ Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) members.

So far, bodies of 27 Naxalites and a large number of weapons have been recovered from the spot. A member of the District Reserve Guard (DRG), a unit of Chhattisgarh Police, was also killed in the action while some others sustained injuries, police said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was proud of the security forces who killed 27 Maoists in Chhattisgarh.

“Proud of our forces for this remarkable success. Our Government is committed to eliminating the menace of Maoism and ensuring a life of peace and progress for our people,” he stated on X.

Union home minister Amit Shah said this was for the first time in three decades of India’s battle against Naxalism that a general secretary-ranked leader has been neutralised by the security forces.

“A landmark achievement in the battle to eliminate Naxalism. Today, in an operation in Narayanpur, Chhattisgarh, our security forces have neutralised 27 dreaded Maoists, including Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basavaraju, the general secretary of CPI-Maoist, the topmost leader, and the backbone of the Naxal movement,” Shah wrote on X.

Applauding the “brave security forces and agencies for this major breakthrough”, the home minister said he was glad to share that after the completion of Operation Black Forest, 54 Naxalites have been arrested and 84 others have surrendered in Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Maharashtra.

“The Modi government is resolved to eliminate Naxalism before the 31st of March 2026,” he said.

With the latest action, 200 Naxalites have been killed in separate encounters in Chhattisgarh so far this year. Of them, 183 were eliminated in the Bastar division, which includes districts of Bijapur, Narayanpur, Dantewada and Kondagaon.

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Nambala Keshav Rao has been leading the party since the former head of the party, Ganapathi, resigned in November 2018.

He was known to have orchestrated the sensational Alipiri bomb blast in Tirupathi in 2003, where the then undivided Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his wife Bhuvaneshwari escaped with minor injuries.

Keshav Rao had also masterminded the 2010 Naxal ambush that had killed 76 central reserve police force (CRPF) personnel and eight villagers near Chintalnar village of Dantewada in Chhattisgarh.

Keshav Rao, a native of Jiyyannapeta village of Srikakulam district in the present Andhra Pradesh, had completed his engineering from the Regional Engineering College (REC) in Warangal, Telangana. His father was a teacher.

Known by the aliases of Prakash, Krishna, Vijay, Umesh and Kamlu, he joined the armed movement as a ground-level organiser. He was also among the founding members of the banned People’s War Group (PWG) in the undivided Andhra Pradesh, which later merged with the Maoist party.

Trained in guerrilla warfare and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), Keshav Rao (Basavaraju) has been acting as the foremost leader of the Maoist party since Ganapathi stepped down as its supreme leader.

He has been leading the Maoist party’s central military commission, and has been in its politbureau and central committee.

(With inputs from PTI)

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