Representative image. Ministry of Defence, GODL-India, Wikimedia Commons
Why it matters
The CRPF is India's largest central armed police force, about 3.25 lakh strong, and it carried the main load of anti-Maoist operations, with nearly 50,000 personnel in those areas at the peak. Both the DG and HT link the zero count to the end of Maoist violence declared in March 2026. The figure does not cover every death in service: deaths by suicide are counted separately, and the NHRC has sought reports on them.
The CRPF operational fatality count has stayed at zero for 12 straight months, the force’s Director General, GP Singh, said in a post on X on Sunday, 1 November 2026. The last operational death in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) was on 30 October 2025, he wrote, and the force had not gone this long without such a death since a stretch that ended in January 1979, 47 years ago.
The claim of a first in 47 years is the DG’s own. Reports of his post by the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency and by The Times of India quote the same wording, and The Hindustan Times added figures for earlier years.
What the CRPF DG said about 12 months without an operational fatality
Singh called the year a significant milestone in the force’s history. According to the post as quoted in PTI’s report, he wrote that “12 consecutive months (One Year) have passed without any operational fatality in the force”. By NewsPlainly’s reading of the dates, that covers the year from 31 October 2025 to 30 October 2026, the day the 12 months since the last death ran out.
He gave four reasons, The Times of India and The Hindustan Times reported: modern equipment, better training, strategic planning, and a sharper focus on what happens after an incident, especially getting injured personnel quickly to secondary and tertiary hospitals. Singh said the result mattered more because the force was still deployed, and working intensely, in all its main operational areas. India TV noted that the post did not go into individual operations.
The announcement came from the CRPF chief on social media. The reports read for this article did not carry a separate statement from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
What counts as a CRPF operational fatality
The CRPF DG’s post, as quoted, did not define operational fatality. In the reports it means personnel killed during security operations, such as anti-Maoist operations, counter-terror duty or counter-insurgency work, rather than all deaths in service.
Two details show where the line sits. The Times of India reported that deaths by suicide in the force are recorded separately from operational fatalities. In August 2026 the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) took up, on its own, a media report that 19 CRPF personnel died by suicide in under five months, January to May 2026, and asked the Union Home Secretary and the CRPF DG for detailed reports, the paper said.
The 2025 count also shows some difference between sources. Officials told PTI that nine CRPF personnel were killed on operational duty in 2025, up to 30 October. The Hindustan Times put it differently: eight of those nine were killed in action in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) areas of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, and one died during field firing practice. LWE is the government’s term for Maoist, or Naxal, insurgency.
CRPF deaths in operations: the earlier years
The figures below come from several reports and the DG’s own posts. They count slightly different things, so they are set side by side rather than added up.
| Period | CRPF personnel killed | What the source says |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 (full year) | 12 | Deaths in Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur (The Hindustan Times) |
| January to June 2025 | 5 | Killed in action, officials told PTI in July 2026 |
| 1 January to 30 October 2025 | 9 | Killed on operational duty, officials told PTI; HT says 8 in action, 1 in firing practice |
| January to June 2026 | 0 | No operational casualty, DG GP Singh’s post of July 2026 (PTI) |
| 31 October 2025 to 30 October 2026 | 0 | No operational fatality, DG GP Singh’s post of 1 November 2026 |
Over the force’s whole history the toll is far larger. According to official data cited by PTI, 2,270 CRPF jawans and officers have died in the line of duty so far. The British set up the force in 1939, and it took its present name in 1949.
Why the Naxal theatre went quiet
With roughly 3.25 lakh personnel, the CRPF is India’s biggest central armed police force. PTI described its three main jobs as anti-Naxal operations, anti-terror duty in Jammu and Kashmir, and counter-insurgency in the northeastern states.
Most of the force’s recent losses came from the Maoist belt, by HT’s count. At the peak of that insurgency, nearly 50,000 CRPF personnel were posted in LWE-hit areas, about 40,000 of them in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region, The Hindustan Times reported. The paper said the last two personnel killed in action died after a blast while on an area domination exercise in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district in October 2025.
Five months after the last operational death, on 30 March 2026, India was declared free of Maoist violence following a crackdown that brought surrenders, arrests and gunfights, HT reported. In a post in July, the DG said the first half of 2026 was the only January to June period in many decades with no operational casualty, and he credited what he called the end of Naxalism, which the Union government announced in March. HT reported that the last member of the Maoists’ Central Committee was arrested in Jharkhand on 28 July 2026.
A timeline of the CRPF record
- 1939: the force is raised under British rule.
- 1949: it is renamed the Central Reserve Police Force.
- January 1979: the last stretch of 12 months or more without an operational fatality ends, according to the DG.
- 30 October 2025: the most recent operational fatality, in Jharkhand.
- 30 March 2026: India is declared free of Maoist violence (HT).
- 1 July 2026: PTI reports the DG’s post on zero operational deaths from January to June 2026.
- 30 October 2026: 12 months pass without an operational fatality.
- 1 November 2026: the DG announces the milestone on X.
Manipur is the force’s next test
The force’s attention is shifting. The Hindustan Times reported that many CRPF battalions have been moved from Bastar to Manipur, and that the Union government plans to send more personnel there amid what the paper called a worsening Naga and Kuki conflict.
A Manipur-based officer told the paper that the state had become the next big theatre for the CRPF, and that the last three personnel injured in action were hit by a militants’ bomb in Imphal. He pointed to the CRPF taking over a camp of cadres from a group under a Suspension of Operations (SoO) pact, and said the force had replaced the Assam Rifles at several places.
Singh ended his post by saying the force remains committed to keeping the country peaceful and safe for all its citizens.
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Frequently asked questions
When was the last CRPF operational fatality?
On 30 October 2025, according to DG GP Singh's post. HT reported that the last two personnel killed in action died after a blast in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum district in October 2025.
When did the CRPF last go a year without an operational death?
In a stretch that ended in January 1979, the DG said, which is why he called the 12 months to 30 October 2026 the first such period in 47 years.
Does operational fatality include suicide or accidents?
The Times of India reported that deaths by suicide are recorded separately. The DG's post did not define the term, and HT counted one 2025 death in field firing practice among that year's nine.