“2025 in internal security: When India finally crushed Naxalism and cleansed the blot of Red Corridors from the landscape”, OpIndia, December 31, 2025
“When Amit Shah publicly set March 31, 2026, as the deadline to end Naxalism, it was not presented as an aspiration or political slogan. It was presented as a timeline. That distinction matters. Deadlines are announced only when the outcome is already visible on the ground, when the remaining task is closure, not conquest.
The war against Naxalism is not a small chapter in India’s internal security. It is the longest-running internal armed conflict, spanning 5 decades, multiple governments, and vast forested regions once known as the Red Corridor. For years, the state tried to manage it by counter operations, negotiating pauses, and reducing casualties. If victory was discussed at all, it was done so with caution. That caution disappeared in 2025.
This year was more than just increased encounters or routine operations. 2025 marked the decisive shift from managing Naxalism to dismantling it systematically and breaking its organisational, territorial, and ideological back. The movement lost its senior leadership, operational depth, recruitment capacity, and, most importantly, the confidence of its own cadres. Entire districts slipped out of Maoist hands. Hundreds surrendered. Safe zones collapsed……”
Read full article at opindia.com
