More civilians killed than security forces in Naxal violence in Chhattisgarh's Bastar

RAIPUR: Between 2001 and 2024, the strife-torn Bastar region in Chhattisgarh has recorded more civilian killings in Naxal violence than the security personnel who lost lives in targeted attacks .
According to Bastar police data, 1,623 civilians of the 1,851 were murdered by Maoists and 228 others were killed in IED blasts that occurred across seven districts in the Maoist-affected division.
On the other hand, 1,292 security personnel were killed in several incidents of encounter, ambush and IED blasts.

While Maoists resort to target killings on security forces by laying ambush, spike-holes and planting IEDs, they kill villagers and tribal people over suspicion that they work as police informers or support development. Often, villagers, children and livestock are killed in the IEDs planted by Naxals to harm jawans.
Juxtaposing Maoist violence with built-up pressure upon them due to anti-Naxalite operations in Bastar, where the security forces are going intensive and hitting hard with 192 Maoists gunned down this year, it's a dark contrast that 32 villagers and 15 jawans have been reported killed in Naxal violence this year. The civilian killings have ranged between 34-93 since 2011 but the deaths were much higher, crossing the mark of 100 and 200, between 2005 and 2010. The highest killing of 297 civilians was recorded in 2006 and 200 jawans were killed in 2007.
The detailed data comes in the wake of recent back-to-back killings of three villagers in Bijapur. Earlier, when the Maoists went on a killing spree in 2020, they killed over a dozen people including security personnel in the same district.
There's a perception among people in Bastar that Bijapur has an air of aggression more than other parts of the tribal region and, the natives turned Maoists of Bijapur are termed more ruthless, who do not usually consider the plea of people and are ideologically misled.
Speaking to TOI, Bastar range inspector general of police (IG) P Sundarraj said that several factors impact Maoists to go violent with villagers. The IG said, over 20-25% of such killings are because the targets fail to provide early warning on police movement and about 4-5% are those who were given money by Maoists to procure something and the victims couldn't deliver (willingly or unwillingly), and are destined to die. The rest are the ones whose family members are in police or security forces, or those who support development work even just by not protesting against it.
"Naxalites expect locals to carry out protests against security camps being established in remote regions and go fully against police and administration. Few others work as informers for the rebels but fail to provide accurate input about the police's movement leading to casualties of Naxals, then they get attacked. Police and administration own them as victims and not Naxal supporters so that they get victims' benefits," IG Sundarraj told TOI.
Maoists kill over minor suspicion, like if someone is missing in the village because they have gone to district headquarters for work, and an encounter takes place during that time, it is enough reason to tag that person as a police informer, he added.
IG said, amidst a complex matrix of various factors, Maoists also get violent with civilians to induce a fear factor, to disconnect them from the outside world, let the village remain aloof sans development and participate in protests. "It's a psychological warfare they get into from time to time to mark their presence and terror specifically on or before Aug 15, Jan 26, during elections. Unfortunately, the villagers couldn't muster the courage to protest when a group of armed Maoists dragged their family members out of the house and punished them. They fear for the safety of other members," Sundarraj said, hoping that once such an objection is sparked in one region of Bastar, it will catch up in other parts too.
Often we take it as Maoists going low on morale when they strike on villagers, because, facing a setback in the organization, they aim to boost the morale of cadres by creating panic and terror in the region, the IG said.