“Straight Talk | AmitShah’s Anti-Naxal Drive Nears The Finish Line”, News 18, February 23, 2026

“Back in 2009, when Manmohan Singh called the Naxalite insurgency “the greatest internal security challenge ever faced by our country,” he wasn’t being dramatic. The Red Corridor then sprawled across 17 per cent of India’s landmass, bleeding into nearly 180 districts across 11 states. Violence hit a peak of 1,936 incidents in 2010, and that year alone, more than 1,000 lives were lost-civilians, police officers, and Maoist cadres dying in roughly equal numbers.

This month saw an event that seemed almost impossible a decade ago. Bihar’s last active marmed Maoist, Suresh Koda,,walked into the Bihar Police,Special Task Force office In Munger and surrendered. He’d been on the run for 25 years, wanted in over 60 cases – murder, extortion, attacks on security personnel. With his surrender, Bihar officially declared itself Naxal-free.Karnataka and Kerala had made similar declarations earlier in the year. These aren’t symbolic gestures. They mark real, measurable progress in what has been one of independent India’s most sustained counter-insurgency campaigns……”

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