Fearing wipe-out, Maoists kill two teachers in Chhattisgarh on suspicion of being informers, read how the Naxals have been targeting innocent civilians for years

In another shocking display of Maoist brutality, two young teachers who were appointed under the state’s Shiksha Doot scheme were murdered by Naxals on Tuesday, 15th July, in a remote village deep inside Chhattisgarh’s Indravati National Park area. 

The victims, Vinod Made (28) from Pillur village and Suresh Meta (29) from Tekameta village, were dragged out of their homes and executed by Maoists who suspected them of being police informers.

The incident took place about 57 kilometres from the Bijapur district headquarters, under the Farsegad police station limits. According to police, both teachers were temporary recruits under the government’s Education Messenger initiative – a scheme aimed at ensuring basic education in remote villages where deploying permanent teachers remains a challenge. The initiative hires educated local youth and pays them ₹12,000 per month through District Mineral Foundation (DMF) funds. These education messengers often run small primary schools from huts or makeshift classrooms in villages surrounded by dense forest and little security presence.

Why are Maoists killing civilians?

For decades already, Maoists have employed fear, violence, and selective killings to keep huge areas of Chhattisgarh under their grip. When anyone from the native population is suspected of collaborating with or even partially assisting the government, they are promptly accused of being a mukhbir – a police informant. And the punishment, most of the time, is death.

This violent tactic has prevented the area from developing, and schools, roads, and even health clinics remain non-operational or simply non-existent. The Naxals understand that when development arrives in these far-flung tribal enclaves, their power base will dwindle. So they instil terror by targeting not merely security forces, but innocent villagers, teachers, sarpanches, cooks, and government volunteers.

A pattern of blood and fear

The attack comes barely weeks after three villagers were brutally murdered by Maoists on 17th June, 2025, in the Peddakorma (Nayapara) village, also in Bijapur district. According to the police, the victims were choked to death in cold blood. The intention, the officials added, was to instil fear among villagers and discourage them from assisting the administration in any way.

The Maoists had brutally killed at least four villagers on the evening of 12th May. Naga Bhandari, a Congress politician and president of the Marudbaka Society, was among the victims. He had been hacked to death with an axe when he was attending a village function at around 11:30 PM. Maoists had killed his elder brother, Tirupati Bhandari, in October 2024 in the same manner.

Other targets in that 12th May assault were a local education volunteer from Meenagatta, a government-nominated cook from Kanchal, and another local. They were all accused of assisting the government in minor ways, something Maoists disapprove of.

Consistent attacks on security personnel are not safe

Though it is the civilians who have suffered most from Maoist atrocities, the security forces are also vulnerable. An IED explosion by Maoists on 6th January, 2025, killed eight security personnel and one civilian driver in Bijapur’s Abujhmad area. All of them belonged to a combined anti-Naxal operation and were returning from a successful operation where five Maoists were killed.

They were the District Reserve Guard (DRG) and Bastar Fighters personnel, who are special forces raised to fight the Maoists in Bastar. They included DRG head constable Budhram Korsa, constables Baman Sodhi, Pandaru Ram Poyay, Bastar Fighters constables Sudarshan Vetti, Somdu Vetti, Subarnath Yadav, Harish Korram, and civilian driver Tuleshwar Rana.

Police confirmed the explosion on the Kudri Bedre road near Ambeli village was executed with the same methodology observed in the April 2023 Dantewada attack, in which 10 DRG personnel and a civilian were killed. An electric wire was used to detonate the device, a method frequently used by Maoists.

A history of silencing local leadership

Maoists have also periodically attacked village heads and ex-sarpanches. In December 2024, a head constable of the DRG was martyred in an encounter with Maoists in Kohkameta of Abujhmadh. Two ex-sarpanches, one of them a BJP functionary, were killed in Bijapur during the same year.

In a 2023 case, a former sarpanch, Ramji Dodi from Zara village, was kidnapped along with his two nephews. He was kidnapped way into the jungle and murdered by being strangled to death, yet again, on suspicion of being an informer for the police.

The violence persists in 2025

As per official reports, 25 civilians have already been murdered by Maoists in Chhattisgarh in 2025. These include teachers, political workers, education volunteers, and ordinary villagers, who were mostly not directly involved in police activities but were regarded as allies of the system.

What these murders illustrate is not only brutality but desperation. The Maoist insurgency, once the big threat to internal security, is losing steam as development gradually encroaches on their footholds. Increasing numbers of villagers are demanding schooling, improved roadways, and government assistance. And that imperils the very existence of Maoists.

The Union Home Minister has assured that the threat of Left Wing terrorism in India is on the verge of extinction and the country will be made Naxal-Mukt by 31 March 2026. Limited to a mere few districts with dozens of their cadre either being eliminated or surrendering, the Naxals are displaying acts of desperation.

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