In a major development, twelve Maoists surrendered to the police in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district on Sunday (July 9). Five of the surrendered Maoists had a reward of ₹6 lakh rupees.
The Maoists are a violent armed wing of the left and have been waging a relentless campaign for decades against the Indian state. Over the years they have been responsible for killing many civilians and security forces.
On Sunday, these Maoists surrendered to the police and the CRPF officials in Dantewada town as a result of the rehabilitation campaign run by the local police.
Dantewada Superintendent of Police Abhishek Pallava told PTI that these people gave up arms because they were disappointed with the hollow Maoist ideology.
This surrender will serves as a big blow to the ultra-left group as one of the surrendered Maoists is Chanduram Sethiya, who was an active member of platoon no. 26 and was allegedly involved in three Maoist attacks, including in Bhusaras-Chingavarm in 2008, wherein 23 policemen and two civilians were killed.
Other four Maoists who had a bounty of ₹ 1 lakh on their heads are Lakhmu Hemla, Sunil Tati, Manu Mandavi and Maituram Barsa.
“All 12 ultras said in their statement that they were disappointed with the hollow Maoist ideology, and were impressed by the ”Lon Varratu” (term coined in local Gondi dialect which means ”return to your village”) campaign being run by the police in Dantewada,” Mr Pallava said.