New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured that the country will free from Naxalism, it is my guarantee within a short period. Modi in his address at the NDTV World Summit – 2025 on Friday, he said that over 300 Maoists surrendered in the past 24 hours.

Modi also said that 303 Naxals have surrendered. These were not normal people they were carrying bounties on their heads, and a huge cache of arms was recovered from them, he said. As a result of those mass surrenders the Government has succeeded in reducing the number of Naxal-affected districts to just 11 from 125 a decade ago, across the country.

He highlighted that Government crackdown on domestic terror groups and his pain at the bloodshed and violence the fighting had caused.

In the last 50-55 years thousands were killed by Maoist terrorists, he said. These Naxals would not allow schools or hospitals to be built, they would not let doctors enter clinics, and they would bomb institutions. Maoist terrorism was an injustice to the young people, he added.

This is why my Government has taken particular efforts to reach out to these wayward youth and bring them back into the mainstream. Today the country is seeing the result of these efforts, he said. Maoist terrorism follow the surrender of 170 on Thursday alone in Chhattisgarh, a region of the country that has historically struggled with the Maoist threat.

In the past in Chhattisgarh, the headlines were about vehicles blown up in Bastar (a particularly badly-affected district) and security personnel killed. Today, youth there are organizing Bastar Olympics. This is a big change now, they will be able to celebrate Diwali, he said.

Modi accused previous Governments of allowing what he called an ecosystem of Urban Naxals to suppress discussion on Maoist violence. Ending his address on an emotional note, the regions long trapped in fear would now celebrate their first peaceful Diwali in decades, he added. That day is not far when the country will be completely free from Naxalism, from Maoist terror. And this too, this too is Modi’s Guarantee, he added.

Modi said that he used to feel agitated this is the first time I am expressing my pain to the world. Srilankan Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya and the former Prime Ministers of Australia and the United Kingdom, Tony Abbott and Rishi Sunak, participated in the summit.