Thirty-two Maoists, including four carrying a reward of Rs 1 lakh each on their head, surrendered before the Chhattisgarh Police in Dantewada district, police said on Sunday.
As per a press release issued by the district police, 19 surrendered Maoists are natives of Bakeli village, four from Korkotti and three each from Udenar, Tumarigunda and Matasi villages which come under Barsoor police station of Dantewada district.
Police further claimed that the Maoists surrendered under ‘Lon Varratu’ drive under which banners were put up in their villages, appealing them to surrender.
The surrendered cadres were involved in the attack on security forces and other Maoists violence in the district, police added.
“Four of them carried a reward of Rs 1 lakh each on their them and were absconding,” the press release stated.
Dantewada police provided them with Rs 10,000 as immediate assistance. Other facilities under Chhattisgarh Surrender and Rehabilitation policy will follow.
As per records, at least 150 purported Maoists have laid down their arms and surrendered under the ongoing ‘Lon Varratu’ campaign in the past four months across around 50 villages of the Left-wing Extremism (LWE)-hit Dantewada district.
However, the tribal rights activists raised questions on this campaign and claimed that an innocent tribal is trapped between Chhattisgarh Police, other paramilitary security forces and the Maoists. Under the programme, the activists alleged, the police are forcing innocent tribals to turn themselves in.
‘Lon Varratu’ in the tribal Gond dialect means homecoming. The police have earmarked about 50 hypersensitive Maoist-dominated villages where pamphlets have been put up with an appeal for them to surrender.
