RAIPUR, Nov. 19 -- "Hidma's terror has ended, peace is returning to Bastar," Chhattisgarh chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai wrote in a social media post on Tuesday, while Inspector General of Police, Bastar Range, Sundarraj P, added that the death of 50-year-old Madvi Hidma marked "one of the most decisive breakthroughs in the history of anti-Naxal operations." The two quotes - one by the state's political administrator and another by a top police officer - not only highlight the terror that Hidma, a central figure of the proscribed Communist Party of India (Maoist) military structure, had on the psyche of residents in Bastar but also summed up the significance of the elimination of the dreaded Maoist commander on the morale of security forces. A resident of Puvarti on the Sukma-Bijapur border, Hidma belonged to the Muriya tribe - a Scheduled Tribe- and studied till class 5. He was recruited as a Bal Sangham cadre of Maoists in 1991, before being absorbed into various local committees as the insurgency expanded its influence across the Dandakaranya region, according to intelligence records. P8...