As many as 66 Maoists, including 49 with a combined bounty of Rs 2.54 crore, surrendered before the police in five districts of Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region on Thursday.
With this, the total number of surrendered Maoists in the last 18 months, which saw an unprecedented number of anti-Maoist operations, rose to 1,570 — a significant increase when compared to the 2022-2023 period, when 813 had surrendered.
Thursday’s surrenders come amid a new initiative from the security forces, called “Poona Margham”, a Gondi term that means “new path”. Under this initiative, the security forces will focus more on reaching out to families of Maoists for help in persuading them to surrender.
The seniormost Maoist cadre to surrender on Thursday was 37-year-old Ramanna Irpa, alias Jagdish, alias Vikesh, who was a Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee (DKSZC) member carrying a reward of Rs 25 lakh.
A resident of Basaguda in Bijapur district, Ramanna had been active for two decades and has at least 30 cases against him, including murders.
On the effort that went into getting him to surrender, a police source said, “We were trying to get him to surrender for three months. We had contacted his family and were persuading them to get him to surrender, and finally, he surrendered with his family’s help.”
Giving credit to the Poona Margham initiative for the large number of surrenders on Thursday, Inspector General of Police for Bastar range, Sundarraj P, said, “Our repeated appeals to Maoist cadres to give up violence and return to the mainstream are showing encouraging results. The surrender of 66 cadres, including a state-level committee member, across five districts in a single day is a strong indication that the Naxal outfit is approaching its end.”
Story continues below this ad
Bijapur SP Jitendra Yadav said, “With the establishment of new security camps in interior regions and improved access to roads, transport, drinking water, electricity, and other public welfare schemes, development is now reaching the remotest villages. Widespread disillusionment with Maoist ideology, increasing internal conflicts within the outfit, and a strong desire to live a peaceful and secure family life are among the primary reasons behind these surrenders.”
While surrendering with weapons makes the cadres eligible for cash rewards, a senior officer said none of the 66 had done so. “None of them surrendered with weapons. They never surrender with weapons as they fear their families will be targeted by Maoists, which has happened in the past,” the officer said.
The surrendered cadres include one DKSZC member, four divisional committee members, 10 People’s Liberation Guerilla Army (PLGA) cadres, 15 area committee members, seven local organisation squad members, and 29 other rank cadres.
