1,125 security personnel killed by Naxals since 2009, reveals RTI query

As many as 1,125 security force personnel have laid down their lives in anti-Naxal operations since 2009, the Union Home Minister has said in reply to a query under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The maximum incidents were reported in 2009 (287) followed by 2010 (262), said the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) Division of the ministry in the reply.

The ministry gave the figures in reply to the RTI query by law Noida-based lawyerand social activist RanjanTomar, who had sought the year-wise data from the MHA on the deaths of security personnel in anti-Naxal operations.

In 2011, 112 security personnel lost their lives, followed by 108 in 2012, 93 in 2013, 81 in 2014, 34 in 2015, 40 in 2016, 56 in 2017, and 52 in 2018, the reply stated.

No casualty was reported in 2019 till January-end, it added.

In a response to an RTI query by Tomar earlier this year, the MHA had stated the 1,190 Left Wing Extremists have been killed by security forces in the country since 2010.

There have been 11,567 incidents involving Naxals during the period in which 1,331 security personnel suffered injuries, it had said.

Information put by the MHA on its website says that 7,907 people have been killed in LWE incidents between 2004 and 2018 (till 31 July).

As many as 90 districts in 11 states of the country are considered as affected by LWE, according to a reply made in Parliament by Minister of State in MHA Hansaj Ahir on February 5, 2019.

The affected states include Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, he had said.

In another reply in Parliament on December 11, 2018, Ahir stated that 731 civilians and 260 security force personnel have been killed from 2015 till 2018 (November 15).