NEW DELHI – Indian police said on April 25 that 47 Maoist rebels have surrendered, marking a fresh symbolic milestone nearly a month after the government declared the country free of the decades‑long Naxalite insurgency. The cadres, from the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), gave up arms before Telangana police in Hyderabad, surrendering 32 weapons including a light machine gun, alongside live ammunition in what security officials described as a major collapse of the last critical unit.
India has conducted an intensified two‑year campaign against the remnants of the Naxalite rebellion, which began in 1967 in a Himalayan foothills village and at its peak in the mid‑2000s spanned large parts of central India with an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 fighters. Over 12,000 rebels, soldiers and civilians are believed to have died in the conflict, which Maoist leaders long framed as a struggle for the rights of marginalised indigenous communities in mineral‑rich forests.
Central Home Minister Amit Shah announced on March 30 that India was Naxal‑free, presenting the April 25 surrender of 47 members as proof that “almost all remaining underground key leaders” have been neutralised.
Authorities have encouraged the remaining insurgents to lay down their arms, offering new civilian identities, rehabilitation programmes and vocational training, with the latest group set to receive about US$159,000 in total, roughly US$3,400 each, as part of their reintegration package.
Despite the symbolic victory, officials admit a daunting task remains in clearing hundreds of crude landmines laid along forest tracks, and in ensuring that local grievances which once fuelled the rebellion do not reignite unrest in central India’s tribal belt.