BASTAR, March 31: India's decades-old Maoist insurgency has been effectively defeated, fulfilling a long-standing deadline to "eradicate" the movement after a sustained military offensive, officials said Monday.
Home Minster Amit Shah told parliament that India was "free" of the rebels, known as the Naxals, with only final steps of military operations remaining.
The nearly six-decades long rebellion, which began in the 1960s and killed more than 12,000 people, was once described by a former prime minister as the biggest internal security threat India faced.
"We have become Naxal-free -- there is no hesitation in saying this," Shah said, adding that "once the entire operation is completed, I will also inform the country."
AFP traces the history of one of Asia's longest insurgencies in five key dates.
- 1967: Naxalites -
A rural revolt in the village of Naxalbari in the tea growing Himalyan foothills of West Bengal against exploitative landlords sets in motion an armed movement, 20 years after India threw off British imperial rule.
Inspired by teachings of Mao Zedong -- still alive at that time -- peasants armed with bows and arrows seize land.
The poorly-organised uprising was swiftly crushed.
Journalists who perished in the Maoist armed conflict in Nepal
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But it inspires other armed groups to mobilise and demand land redistribution -- and gives the emergent guerrilla force its name.
The movement becomes known as the Naxalites, after the village where it began.
- 1980s: Expansion -
One faction moves into the dense jungles of central India, resolving to expand its struggle to include attacks on police and paramilitary forces.
The forests of Bastar, in Chhattisgarh state, become a key hideout and staging post for guerrilla operations.
Maoists cultivate support from the area's tribal population by helping them campaign for proper land titles and better prices for forest produce.
This local backing sustains the insurgency for decades.
- 2004: Momentum -
Two separate factions merge to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist), with the declared aim of establishing a "people's government" through the violent overthrow of the Indian state.
At its peak, in the mid-to-late 2000s, the rebels field an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 armed cadres, operating in districts across nearly a third of India.
In many of these areas, known as the "Red Corridor", the guerrillas shut out the government entirely and establish their own parallel administration.
The rebels maintain a tight grip, enforcing their rule through executions of suspected informers.
- 2010: Deadly attacks -
A Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarh in April 2010 kills 76 paramilitary troops, the single deadliest attack on Indian security forces by the insurgents.
In 2013, the Maoists attack a political convoy, killing more than two dozen people. It effectively wipes out the top state leadership of the Congress party.
Then-prime minister Manmohan Singh described the movement as India's "biggest internal security threat".
Government forces launch a major counteroffensive, deploying large paramilitary contingents to penetrate Maoist strongholds.
Rights groups raise concerns over high civilian casualties among tribal communities caught between security forces and insurgents.
- 2026: End game -
Years of sustained counterinsurgency under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and spearheaded by Home Minister Amit Shah, leave the movement a shadow of its former self.
Its top leadership has either been killed or has surrendered.
In 2025 alone, security forces killed 364 insurgents, arrested 1,022, and another 2,337 surrendered, including senior leaders, according to figures tabled in India's parliament.
Civilian and security force deaths have dropped by 90 percent since 2010, and annual Maoist attacks have fallen from over 1,900 to roughly 200 last year.
Thippiri Tirupati, also known as Devji, who assumed leadership after the killing of the previous chief in 2025, surrendered in February, delivering a decisive blow to the insurgency.
