Marks ‘final nail in coffin’ of Bastar insurgency
TNR News Network
NEW DELHI:
Top Maoist commander Madvi Hidma, long considered India’s most elusive and dangerous Naxalite, was shot d*ead in an encounter in Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday (November 18, 2025), a development that security forces say marks the decisive endgame of the Maoist movement in Bastar.
Security personnel zeroed in on a Maoist squad deep inside the Maredumilli forests of Alluri Sitarama Raju district, engaging them in a fierce morning gunfight. A senior Bastar police officer confirmed that Hidma, his wife Raje and four other Maoist cadres were neutralised in the operation.
Describing the breakthrough, Chhattisgarh Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Sharma said in Raipur, “We have information that Hidma is among those killed along the Andhra-Chhattisgarh border. This is a very significant development.”
Masterminded deadliest attacks in Bastar
Hidma, hailing from Puvarti village in Sukma, spent nearly two decades shaping Maoist military strategy in Dandakaranya. Rising from a foot soldier in the late 1990s, he eventually led the group’s most lethal combat unit, PLGA Battalion No. 1, before being elevated to the Maoist central committee last year.
He gained notoriety after the 2010 Tadmetla massacre, where 76 security personnel were killed, an attack he helped execute alongside senior commander Papa Rao.
His name resurfaced after almost every major ambush in south Bastar, including the 2013 Jhiram Valley attack, which wiped out a generation of Congress leadership, and the 2017 Burkapal ambush that claimed 24 CRPF personnel.
Police officials say Hidma had gained ‘mythic’ status among cadres
A guerrilla warfare specialist, Hidma moved with a heavily armed unit protected by a four-tier security ring, making him nearly untraceable for years.
Officials said sustained security operations over the past two years severely fractured the Maoist network, forcing Hidma and other senior leaders to retreat toward the Chhattisgarh-Telangana-Andhra trijunction.
His wife Raje, also active in the same battalion, was allegedly involved in almost every major strike carried out under his leadership. Police officials say Hidma had gained a “mythic” status among cadres and his death represents a major psychological and operational setback for the Maoist movement in Bastar.
With Tuesday’s encounter, nine Maoist Central Committee members have now been eliminated in coordinated operations across Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh. Those previously killed include top CPI (Maoist) leader Nambala Keshav Rao, alias Basavaraju, along with multiple central committee operatives.
Security forces believe Hidma’s downfall brings the insurgency in its traditional stronghold closer than ever to collapse, a development they describe as the final nail in the coffin of Maoism in Bastar.
India’s most-wanted Naxalite, who moved in heavily armed four-tier security ring, killed in encounter
