989 weapons seized or recovered from Maoists since 2020, Chhattisgarh Assembly told

In the past six years, 989 weapons have been seized or recovered from Maoists in Chhattisgarh, the State government told the Legislative Assembly on Thursday (February 26, 2026).

The list includes 671 weapons recovered from LWE killed by security forces in encounters, 238 submitted by Maoists who surrendered and 80 seized from arrested Maoists between January 1, 2020 and January 31 this year, the reply added.

The replies listed multiple categories of weapons, from muzzle-loading rifles to BGL launchers and light machine guns, as well as assault rifles such as AK-47. Seventy AK-47 rifles figure in the list.

In response to a question by the Leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader Charan Das Mahant, Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma, who holds the Home portfolio, also told the House that 48 weapons were snatched or looted by Maoists from security forces between January 1, 2019 and January 31 this year.

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No weapons were snatched or looted from security forces in 2025 and in 2026 till date. The number was highest in 2020, when Maoists managed to take away 19 weapons.

Mr. Mahant had asked about the weapons snatched and looted during encounters between 2019 and January 30, as well as the weapons recovered. He also sought details on how many Left were arrested and how many were killed in police encounters from January 2020 to the aforementioned date.

In his reply, Mr. Sharma told the Assembly that 4,340 Maoists had surrendered, 3,644 had been arrested and 666 had been killed in encounters during this period.

Notably, security forces in Chhattisgarh have stepped up operations against Maoists in the past two years, during which at least 534 Maoists have been killed, 2,704 have surrendered and 2,004 have been arrested, most of them in the Bastar region.