After 8 camps, Abujhmarh begins to open up

Raipur: In a region long cut off due to insurgency, officials said people in Abujhmarh of Narayanpur district will soon have regular access to public facilities. Security forces opened the eighth and final security camp of 2026 at Kumnar on March 22 as part of the anti-Maoist ‘Marh Bachao' campaign.The camp comes in terrain that for years functioned as a refuge for senior Maoist leadership. It is also part of the broader belt where top Maoist leader Basava Raju was neutralised last year, a turning point that officials say accelerated the push into Abujhmarh's interior.Over the past two years, a dense grid of camps has been established across the region, steadily shrinking Maoist space."But beyond strategy, the messaging around Kumnar is symbolic; a place once defined by fear is now being projected as a space where villagers can assert normal civic life, including publicly celebrating national identity," said a police statement.The camp is expected to anchor direct road connectivity from Orchha through Kumnar to Bhairamgarh in neighbouring Bijapur district, a stretch that until recently lay beyond regular administrative reach.Officials said it would secure road construction, culverts, healthcare and mobile connectivity along the Kandulnar-Orchha-Edjhum-Idwaya-Ader-Kudmel-Boter-Divalur-Kumnar axis, opening access into villages that remained cut off from normal life. Till 2025, large parts of Orchha were effectively under what officials described as Maoists' "undeclared control". Positioned about 102 km from Narayanpur headquarters, Kumnar will now act as a forward node for both security operations and development outreach, police said. The operation was carried out jointly by Narayanpur police, DRG, Bastar Fighters and Indo-Tibetan border police.For the district administration, Kumnar represents more than a camp - from a Maoist sanctuary to a connected zone, from isolation to access where people can "live without fear and raise the national flag."