SOUTH ASIA INTELLIGENCE REVIEW Volume 23 No. 46
Maoists: No Proximate Peace
On May 2, 2025, in an interesting turn of events, leaders of different political parties, people’s organisations and rights groups staged a protest in the Khammam District of Telangana, demanding that the Central and State governments stop Operation Kagar against the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) and the killing of tribals. Also, a massive human chain was formed at Ambedkar Centre in support of the demand, in which the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) district president and Member of Legislative Council (MLC) Tata Madhusudhan, left parties’ leaders Nunna Nageswara Rao, B. Hemanth Rao and G. Venkateswarlu Rao, Congress leader Potla Nageswara Rao, Telangana Jana Samiti (TJS) leader G. Shankar Rao, Telangana People’s Joint Action Committee (JAC) leader Devireddy Vijay Kumar, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader S. Subba Rao and others, took part.
Addressing the gathering, Madhusudhan claimed that. under the guise of Operation Kagar, paramilitary forces, Bastar Fighters, and C-60 commandos were all targeting the tribal people. He claimed that the tribals, who are citizens of the nation, were being attacked by Security Forces (SFs) which are meant to be on the nation’s frontiers. Madhusudhan noted,
It is undemocratic for Union Home Minister Amit Shah to say that the government’s goal is to destroy the Maoists to achieve Maoist-free India. It is against democracy and the Constitution. Even as Maoists are saying that they are ready for peace talks, there is no response from the governments and it proves authoritarian rule at the Centre.
Moreover, the Left parties’ leaders demanded that the Centre immediately stop the ongoing Operation Kagar, send back the Central forces and hold peace talks with the Maoists. Otherwise, the parties would intensify their struggle against the Centre, they warned.
On April 27, 2025, addressing a massive public meeting in Warangal on the demand to halt the ongoing Operation Kagar, former Chief Minister and BRS president K. Chandrashekar Rao aka KCR declared,
Today, the Centre in the name of Kagar operation in Chhattisgarh, is massacring youth and tribals. This is not right. Naxalites (Maoists) are proposing that they are ready to hold talks with the government. I am appealing to the central government to immediately halt Operation Kagar. Just because you have power you cannot go on a killing spree. This is not democracy. Invite them, create a democratic space and be open to listening to them.
On April 28, 2025, these remarks were reiterated by KCR’s daughter, BRS Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) K. Kavitha, who urged the Centre to immediately halt Operation Kagar and initiate peace talks with the Maoists, stressing that force was not the solution to Naxalism:
Operation Kagar is being carried out in Chhattisgarh and our party firmly believes that the ideology of Naxalism should be eradicated only through dialogue and not by the use of force. India must find a political solution to Naxalism. I believe the central government should immediately call for a ceasefire.
Earlier, on April 26, 2025, a protest organised by the Communist Party of India – Marxist (CPI-M), Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist-New Democracy (CPI-ML-New Democracy) and the Telangana People’s Joint Action Committee (JAC) marched from the R&B Guest House to the Old Bus Stand in Khammam, amidst chants demanding an end to hostilities and immediate peace talks, calling on the Centre to declare a ceasefire and initiate dialogue with the CPI-Maoist.
Indeed, these ongoing protests by several political parties as well as people’s organisations, were initiated in the wake of Operation Karregutta, under which the government was moving ahead with its anti-Naxal offensive. Significantly, Operation Karregutta was planned on the lines of Operation Octopus, launched by the CRPF and Jharkhand Police in 2022, to gain control over the heavily mined Burha Pahar hill range in the Garhwa District of Jharkhand.
However, on May 2, 2025, Chhattisgarh State Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister Vijay Sharma rejected calls for truce and dialogue, wondering why the protesting groups had woken up all of a sudden. He argued, “Where were these people when innocent villagers and political leaders were being massacred in Bastar? Now that Telangana is feeling the heat, they suddenly want peace?”
He further recounted many incidents of Maoist violence – including the Jheeram massacre in which frontline Congress leaders were killed, and the Errabore attack where an 8-month-old infant was burnt alive, along with many others, and went on to say,
Who are they to talk for Maoists? Let the Naxalites talk for themselves. Those who want to talk, they have only issued letters and left. There can’t be any pressure. Tell me about the losses caused due to IED blasts and Naxal violence.
Earlier, on April 30, 2025, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai slammed his Telangana counterpart A. Revanth Reddy for purportedly saying that ‘Adivasis are being murdered’ while referring to anti-Naxal operations, and declared,
I condemn Telangana CM’s statement in which he said that adivasis are being murdered. We have been urging Naxals to surrender and join the mainstream. We have seen the results with many Naxals surrendering.
Significantly, the series of present agreements and disagreements arose after March 28, 2025, when the Maoists, through a press release in Telangana, offered conditional peace talks, to which the Chhattisgarh Government responded by declaring that any talks must be unconditional. The CPI-Maoist ‘central committee’ (CC) had stated that it was ready for peace talks on the condition that the government halts its anti-Maoist operations in the region and stops the establishment of new armed forces’ camps in various States, including Chhattisgarh. The Maoist statement read,
We are always ready for peace talks in the interest of the public. Therefore, on this occasion, we are proposing to create a positive atmosphere for peace talks in front of the Central and State governments.
However, responding to the offer on April 3, 2025, Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma stated that the Government was ready for talks and for the Maoists to return to the mainstream, but it could not be subject to conditions laid down by the Maoists. He added that the Government was not going to form any committees for peace talks and reiterated that the Maoists could initiate negotiations through any channel of their choice. Sharma stated,
They have written themselves that the last time they had said that they would discuss if [security forces] should not leave their camps for six months, there should be a reduction in the number of troops, the weapons should remain unused or be deposited. Back then, we had made it clear that with these conditions, there will be no talks. Talks will be without any conditions and we are still ready for that, our Central leadership is ready, Hon. [Chief Minister] Vishnu Deo Sai ji is ready, there is no problem with talks. But the Government will not form any committee. They should make one if they want or use the channel they like, we are ready.
Meanwhile, a letter by the Maoists offering peace talks and a ceasefire to the Government, was released on April 2, 2025, in the name of Abhay aka Mallojula Venugopal Rao (69), Maoist ‘politburo’ member, which claimed that discussions had been held by a committee in Hyderabad the previous month, and that the Maoists would immediately call for a ‘ceasefire’ and initiate peace talks if the security forces stopped setting up police camps and running anti-Naxal operations across Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli, Odisha, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana.
A second letter, released on April 18, 2025, in the name of Rupesh, the ‘spokesperson’ of the party’s North and West Sub-zonal Bureau, announced that the Maoists wanted a ceasefire from both sides for at least a month.
On April 25, 2025, for the third time the Maoists a third letter sent by Rupesh, appealing to the central Government that the anti-Naxal operation should be stopped, the soldiers should be called back, the government should stop the campaign for a month, after which the Maoists would hold peace talks when a favorable environment had been created. An emotional appeal was made, the Maoists asserted, and they were waiting for a positive response.
The Central Government is yet to respond to the Maoists’ proposals for peace talks.
It is useful and interesting to recall here the that talks with the Maoist failed miserably in the past. On October 11, 2004, a team of 11 Maoists, led by CPI-Maoist ‘central committee (CC)’ member Akkiraju Haragopal aka Ramakrishna, came out of hiding from the Nallamala forest near Srisailam, Andhra Pradesh, to visit Hyderabad’s Jubilee Hills for peace talks with the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy aka YSR-led Congress Government. The Government delegation, led by then Home Minister K. Jana Reddy held peace talks for a few days with the Maoists, but nothing came of it, as the Maoists did not agree to a clause about not carrying weapons during the dialogue process. The talks failed, even as the Maoists exploited the ceasefire to propagate their ideology, recruit more cadres, and extend areas of influence. The Maoist leaders and cadre soon went back into the forests, and the movement saw a dramatic escalation thereafter. Significantly, the Andhra Pradesh Police and Intelligence branch had also used the dialogue process to penetrate the Maoist organisation and leadership, and this resulted in the rapid decimation of the Maoist movement in the State after the breakdown of the talks.
According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), at least 280 fatalities, including 89 civilians, 82 SFs, 87 Naxalites and another 22 unspecified deaths, were recorded in 2004, but escalated to a peak of 1,180 fatalities, including 630 civilians, 267 SFs, 265 Naxalites and 18 unspecified deaths in 2010. It is significant that 2004 also saw the merger of the two principal Left Wing Extremist groups, the People’s War Group and the Maoist Communist Centre, followed by the rapid extension of the movement to new areas, eventually to peak at 223 Districts across 20 States by 2009.
In May 2010, then Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram had written to human rights activist Swami Agnivesh, asking him to act as a mediator. The talks collapsed that July, after CPI-Maoist ‘CC’ member Cherukuri Rajkumar aka Azad, who was supposed to lead the dialogue on the rebel side, was killed in an encounter on July 1, 2010.
Later, in its 2018 Assembly election manifesto the Congress mentioned it would pursue peace talks with the Maoists, but this did not happen after the party came to power.
Further, in response to a letter from the Maoists in 2022, Chhattisgarh Home Minister Tamradhwaj Sahu stated that the negotiations would only take place in the absence of any conditions. Back then, the Maoists had demanded the release of their imprisoned leaders, the cessation of claimed aerial strikes, the lifting of the ban on the CPI-Maoist and its front organisations, and the evacuation of forces from combat areas. When the demands were not considered, it was the Maoists who turned down the talks.
According to SATP data, since 2010, another 4,101 fatalities, including 1,404 civilians, 860 SFs, 1,832 Naxalites and another five unspecified deaths, had been recorded by the end of 2022.
More importantly, the 2023–2024 period, saw a continuous and aggressive campaign against the Maoists, after the UMHA announced a deadline of March 31, 2026, to eradicate Naxalism.
Significantly, another 545 fatalities, including 141 civilians, 52 SFs, and 352 Naxalites, were recorded in 2023 and 2024. At least 210 fatalities, including 17 civilians, 16 SFs, and 177 Naxalites have already been killed across the country in 2025, thus far (data till May 4).
In an April 13, 2025, report, former Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) R.K. Vij rightly noted that peace talks are not part of the Maoist ideology or strategy, which seeks to capture power through armed struggle. Vij observed,
Peace talks mean their agenda of armed struggle is defeated… We should go for peace talks once they lay down their arms and go for a long-term solution… If they are not giving up their weapons and ammunition, it simply means they will use this period to regroup… They want the talks only when it is of some advantage to them.
With the grim reminders of failed peace talks with the Maoists in the past, security and intelligence agencies engaged in the anti-Naxalite campaign seem to be in no mood to slam brakes on the ongoing combing operations, as they perceive the call for peace talks by the Maoists to be a part of their strategy of ‘tactical retreat’. In the past, the Maoists have exploited interregnums of peace to consolidate their position. However, never in the past have the rebels been as weak as they presently are, with most of their areas of erstwhile dominance already under SF control, and the few remaining safe havens shrinking rapidly as the SFs push their armed camps deep into the jungles where the Maoists remain. It remains to be seen whether a peace process can be initiated in good faith. At present, the Centre appears in no mood to yield any quarter.
Balochistan: Revenge Killings
On April 30, 2025, Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) cadres killed a State-backed ‘death squad’ member, Zubair Abid, in the Malikabad area of Tump tehsil (revenue unit) in the Kech District of Balochistan. In a statement issued on May 1, BLA ‘spokesperson’ Jeeyand Baloch declared that the group’s fighters had ‘neutralised’ Zubair Abid, described as a key operative of a “military-backed death squad”. The BLA accused Abid and his brother Saeed of running an armed gang that assisted the Pakistani military in “targeted killings, house raids, and road blockades” across Tump, Dazin and Gomazi.
On April 28, 2025, BLA cadres killed a key operative of ‘death squad’, Nasir Karim, during an armed assault in the Alandoor area of Buleda tehsil in Kech District. According to BLA ‘spokesperson’ Jeeyand Baloch, Karim was ambushed while travelling in a vehicle with his associates. He was reportedly killed on the spot, and one of his companions, identified as Zubair, was seriously injured. BLA alleged that Karim led a ‘death squad’ operating under the patronage of Provincial Minister Zahoor Buledi.
On April 27, 2025, BLA cadres killed one ‘death squad’ member along with one Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) cadre, while another ‘death squad’ member sustained injuries in a remote-controlled explosion in the Pasni area of Gwadar District. The ISI cadre was identified as Muhammad Nawaz, son of Muhammad Azam, a resident of Hakeem Wala near the Chorangi Joharabad tehsil of Khushab District in Punjab. While claiming responsibility for the killing, BLA ‘spokesperson’ Jeeyand Baloch stated that Muhammad Nawaz was an ISI officer stationed in Gwadar and had been under surveillance by the BLA’s intelligence wing, ‘ZIRAB’. He was targeted while travelling in a vehicle with members of a “state-backed death squad.” The BLA said that a ‘death squad’ operative, Salman, son of Munir Ahmed, resident of Babbar Shoor, Pasni, was also killed in the blast, while another operative, Shah Nazar, was injured. The group alleged that the ISI officer was being facilitated in Pasni by a local ‘death squad’ leader, identified as Balach.
In just a week, the Baloch insurgents thus eliminated at least three State-backed ‘death squad’ members. According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), during the first four months of 2025 (data till May 4, 2025), 16 ‘death squad’ members have been killed and 11 injured in 16 attacks. During the corresponding period of 2024, no such incident had been reported. During the rest of 2024, 14 incidents of attacks on ‘death squad’ members, in which 27 members were killed while another eight sustained injuries, were recorded. In 2023, four ‘death squad’ members were killed in four incidents of attack. In 2022, 17 ‘death squad’ members were killed and another 10 injured in 13 incidents of attack. Five incidents of attacks were reported in 2021, resulting in four dead and eight injured.
One of the most prominent attacks on ‘death squad’ members in recent time was the March 5, 2025, explosion targeting the vehicle of ‘death squad’ leader Samad Sumalani, which killed at least four ‘death squad’ members and injured five in the Naal area of Khuzdar District. Sumalani was seriously wounded in the explosion. While claiming responsibility for the attack, BLA ‘spokesperson’ Jeeyand Baloch stated,
Sumalani has been involved in the targeted killings of Baloch people in Naal, Gresha, Panjgur and surrounding areas. He led the so-called death squad on behalf of the occupying Army, violated the sanctity of homes and directly assisted the occupying forces in the forced disappearances of individuals. The occupying Army has given Samad Sumalani free rein in drug trafficking, extortion and robbery in return for his acts of Baloch genocide. He has also been involved in seizing people’s lands under the patronage of the enemy army in Raghe, Hub and Kohda. Additionally, Sumalani and his gang have forced families to marry off their daughters at gunpoint.”
The elimination of ‘death squad’ members is retribution inflicted by Baloch insurgent groups on those who are partners in crime in the state’s systematic human rights abuses and extra-judicial killings of Baloch people. According to the Voice for Baloch Missing Persons (VBMP), Balochistan has around 7,000 missing persons. However, the Pakistan Government’s Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances (COIED) report claimed that there were only 454 active cases in Balochistan, as of October 2023, an assertion that created deep resentment among the Baloch people.
‘Death squads’ are local armed militia of criminals in Balochistan, patronized by the Army in carrying out enforced disappearances under the state’s ‘kill-and-dump policy’. These groups often accompany SFs during raids on the homes of political activists, dissidents and ‘pro-independence’ leaders. In exchange for their services, the SFs have given the death squads a free hand to operate throughout Balochistan, to engage in a range of illegal activities, including drug dealing, smuggling of weapons, and to run terrorist training camps and private jails, under the patronage of the intelligence agencies.
The ‘death squads’, along with SFs, have been the main executors of unattributed extrajudicial killings in Balochistan. According to the SATP database, of the 5,079 conflict-linked civilian fatalities recorded in Balochistan since 2004 (data till May 4, 2025), at least 1,666 are attributable to one or other terrorist/insurgent outfit. Of these, 655 civilian killings (363 in the South and 292 in the North) have been claimed by Baloch separatist formations, while Islamist and sectarian extremist formations – primarily Islamic State, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Ahrar-ul-Hind (Liberators of India) – claimed responsibility for another 1,011 civilian killings, 928 in the North (mostly in and around Quetta) and 83 in the South. The remaining 3,413 civilian fatalities – 1,922 in the South and 1,491 in the North – remain ‘unattributed’, and are largely believed to have been the handiwork of the SFs and their death squad proxies.
Shafiq-ur-Rehman Mengal formed the first death squad in Balochistan in 2008 – the Musallah Defah Tanzeem (MDT) – with the mission of ‘defending’ the public from pro-independence groups. Mengal had the support of the Pakistan Army, and his powerful connections helped him raise his militia. Mengal initiated a reign of terror in Balochistan, killing not only suspected nationalists but also political, non-political and tribal rivals. Mengal is also ‘credited’ with the mass graves discovered in 2014 at Tootak, a rural area 55 kilometres to the north of Khuzdar, where 169 bodies were recovered.
With increasing attacks by Baloch insurgents, media reports emerged on February 27, 2025, indicating that Shafiq Mengal had been relocating his camp from Tootak to Badri in Khuzdar District, due to security concerns. Tootak is infamous for the discovery of mass graves of ‘disappeared’ victims in 2014. On February 18, 2011, SFs launched an operation in the village, rounding up all male residents. While some were eventually released, 82-year-old Mohammad Rahim Khan Qalandrani and 16 members of his family remain missing to this day. Following the operation, the Pakistani state handed control of Tootak to Shafiq Mengal, who established a stronghold in the area. Mengal allegedly set up torture cells within his camp, where innocent civilians were detained and subjected to brutal treatment. Eyewitnesses and local shepherds reported hearing the screams of detainees at night, and those who died under torture were buried in secret. In 2014, mass graves were discovered by a shepherd, uncovering the bodies in advanced stages of decomposition. This discovery led to national and international condemnation, but no concrete action was taken against Mengal.
Apart from Shafiq Mengal, several other local militia groups have been raised as death squads in Balochistan, including the Zakaria M. Hasni-led death squad in Khuzdar; the Deen Muhammad Deenu-led group in Awaran; another led by Samir Sabzal, Rashid Pathan and Sardar Aziz in Kech; the Maqbool Shambezi group in Panjgur and the Siraj Raisani group in Mastung. Siraj Raisani was killed on July 13, 2018, when a suicide bomber targeted a BAP political rally, killing at least 128 people and injuring more than 200 at Dringarh village in Mastung District.
Dr. Mahrang Baloch, the Baloch human rights activist against state oppression, noted on January 27, 2024, that state institutions and the death squads backed by them had rendered Baloch mothers forcibly “Helpless”, as enforced disappearances, abductions and killings continued in the province. She posted on social media ‘X’,
The state institutions and their backed death squads have rendered our Baloch mothers and their entire families forcibly “Helpless”. From every corner of Balochistan, they have abducted, killed, and dumped our nation’s fellows. What else remains but ‘Resistance’ and a movement against the genocidal and brutal policies of the state? This is a people’s resistance, and only the people themselves can resist to end such barbaric policies.”
While death squads operate against the Baloch people under state impunity as a result of their cooperation and association with intelligence agencies and the Army, they have now come under increasing threat from Baloch militant groups. With increasing cases of ‘enforced disappearances’ and extra-judicial killings of Baloch people in the province, cases of retribution by Baloch insurgents against ‘death squad’ members have been rising. Though the death squads operate under state impunity and intelligence agencies protection, they have not been immune to Baloch wrath.
Weekly Fatalities: Major Conflicts in South Asia
April 28 – May 4, 2025
Provisional data compiled from English language media sources.