Shah to visit security camps, review anti-Naxal ops to Chhattisgarh

Shah will also lay foundation stones for a National Forensic Science University (NFSU) and a state forensic lab in Nava Raipur Atal Nagar on the first day of his visit (Sunday)

Union Home Minister Amit Shah will visit a security camp and chair a meeting to review ongoing anti-Naxal operations in Chhattisgarh during his two-day trip to the state starting from June 22, Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma said on Thursday.  He will also lay foundation stones for a National Forensic Science University (NFSU) and a state forensic lab in Nava Raipur Atal Nagar on the first day of his visit (Sunday), Sharma told reporters here. 

  The state government has allotted 40 acres of land for NFSU, which will be built by the Centre at a cost of around Rs 400 crore. The state forensic lab will come up adjacent to the NFSU campus on six to seven acres of land, said the Deputy CM, who holds the home portfolio.  The next day (Monday), Shah will visit a camp of security forces (in Bastar region), he added. During the visit, Shah will chair a meeting in Raipur to review ongoing anti-Naxal operations and meet with family members of Additional Superintendent of Police Akash Rao Girepunje, who died when a Maoist planted pressure IED exploded in Sukma district on June 9, Sharma added. 

  Notably, anti-Naxalite operations have been intensified in Chhattisgarh since the BJP was elected to power in the 2023 assembly polls and more than 400 Maoist cadres, including senior functionaries, gunned down by security forces in separate encounters since January 2024.  Shah has repeatedly declared that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government is committed to eradicate Naxalism by March 31, 2026. Security forces achieved a major success when they neutralised Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju (70), general secretary of the outlawed CPI (Maoist), in the Bastar region on May 21.