Snigdhendu Bhattacharya
Gyanendra Pratap Singh, director general of the Central Reserve Police Force, and Arun Dev Gautam, director general of the Chhattisgarh Police, brief the media on the anti-Maoist “Operation Black Forest” in Chhattisgarh, May 14, 2025.Credit: Facebook/Central Reserve Police Force
Over May 17 and 18, hundreds of Indian security forces began encircling Gundekot village in the hilly and densely forested Abujmarh region of central India’s Chhattisgarh state. A group of 35 Maoist guerillas, including the top leader of India’s largest outlawed organization, was camping there. Security forces were accompanied by some of the rebels who had surrendered in recent weeks and had knowledge of the difficult terrain.
Gun fights started from the morning of May 19. The guerillas tried to break the encirclement throughout May 20. But the number of security forces only increased. While the guerrillas started running out of resources, Indian Air Force choppers kept the security forces supplied with food and other resources.
One team of seven guerrillas managed to break the security encirclement and escaped. But heavy shelling pinned down the rest. By the morning of May 21, all of the remaining fighters were killed.
The same day, Indian security forces announced that among the dead was Nambala Keshava Rao, alias Basavaraj, on whose head India’s premier anti-terror body, the National Investigation Agency, had announced its highest cash reward.
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