Watch: Jawans, Who Neutralised 27 Naxals, Welcomed With Tilak in Chhattisgarh

The neutralization of 27 Naxalites in an encounter in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district by security forces was celebrated with great pomp and fervor.

The DRG jawans who carried out the operation against the insurgents were welcomed with tilak by locals in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur.

Visuals from the occasion that have surfaced on the internet show local women showering flower petals on the jawans and applying tilak on their foreheads.

The video also shows locals applying ‘gulaal’ to the jawans to congratulate them on this significant achievement.

The jawans can be seen joyfully dancing with the locals in celebration.

The visuals suggest that it was raining during the celebrations, with the jawans getting drenched as their chants filled the air.

Later, the jawans were seen marching down the main road to mark their victory.

Firecrackers were burst on the occasion as a tribute to their valor.

The security forces, along with local men, women and children, were fully immersed in the joyous celebration.

Several senior-level Maoist cadres, including a top Naxal commander, Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basavaraj—who carried a bounty of ₹1.5 crore on his head—were killed in the operation.

The encounter, in which 27 Naxalites were killed, was part of Operation Kagar, a mission targeting Maoist strongholds.

It occurred early Wednesday morning between District Reserve Guard (DRG) jawans and Naxals in the dense forests of Abujhmad, located in the Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh.

The offensive was launched based on intelligence inputs regarding Central Committee and Politburo members of the Naxals, as well as senior cadres from the Maad Division and the PLGA. DRG teams from Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur, and Kondagaon were dispatched to Abujhmad for the operation.

The Abujhmad region, in the Bastar division of Chhattisgarh, has long been a center of Naxal violence.

During the operation, multiple modern weapons, including AK-47 rifles and explosives, were seized from the Maoists.

In a post on his X handle, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has praised the Indian forces for the success of this operation.