(MENAFN- IANS) New Delhi, Oct 15 (IANS) The Government's objective of achieving a Naxal-free Bharat is yielding considerable results as the number of districts most affected by the red terror has been considerably brought down, from six to three.

A government release on Wednesday said Left Wing Extremism (LWE) has seen an overall decline, and today, only three districts, namely Bijapur, Sukma and Narayanpur – all in Chhattisgarh remain infested by it.

The districts which continue to remain in the grip of LWE have also been brought down from 18 to 11 in number, it said.

Notably, Union Home Minister Amit Shah has reiterated on multiple occasions that the Naxal menace will be completely eradicated from the country by March 31, 2026.

The anti-Naxal operation has achieved considerable success in the past few years as more than 300 LWE cadres have been eliminated, including CPI (Maoist) General Secretary and eight other Polit Bureau/Central Committee Members. As many as 836 LWE cadres were arrested, while 1,639 surrendered and joined the mainstream. The surrendered Naxalites included one Polit Bureau Member and a Central Committee Member.

An unprecedented success has been achieved in combating the Naxal menace under the Modi government through rigorous implementation of the National Action Plan and Policy, which envisages a multi-pronged approach.

Once called India's“biggest internal security challenge” by the then Prime Minister in 2010, the threat of Naxalism is now visibly retreating. Naxals had planned a red corridor - stretching from Pashupati in Nepal to Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.

In 2013, 126 districts from different states reported Naxal-related violence; by March 2025, this tally had fallen to just 18 districts, with only six classified as 'Most Affected Districts.'

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