Steady decline in naxal violence since 2017: Govt

New Delhi: The number of Naxal violence incidents and those of civilians and security forces killed in these occurrences has shown a declining trend in the last three-year period beginning 2017, the government informed Parliament on Tuesday.

Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy provided the data in this context in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

Similarly, the number of civilians killed in various Left Wing Extremism (LWE) violence-affected states also came down from 188 (2017) to 173 (2018) and followed by 150 (2019).

A similar trend was observed in the number of security forces personnel killed in these incidents – 75 (2017), 67 (2018) and 52 (2019).

However, the number of Maoists killed and arrested during the same time period did not show a consistent picture.

In 2017, while 136 Naxals were killed in various states, it grew to 225 in 2018 but came down to 145 during the last year.

Similarly, the figures for Maoists arrested were 1,888 in 2017 which went up to 1,933 in 2018 and then went down to 1,276 in 2019.

“To combat the LWE menace in a holistic manner, the government of India has formulated a national policy and action plan in 2015, which envisages a multi-pronged approach comprising security, development and ensuring rights and entitlements of local communities etc.,” Reddy said.